Relocating the Fault Lines

Reviews / Votes

"Here is history watched in its unfolding, then put on record. Women tell an astute listener what they saw, read, and remember even as their careful witness-at once an eloquent and tragic story-is enabled by the knowing attention of a seasoned diplomat and psychologist. This effort advances the kind of history Tolstoy urged be written-a narration of on-the-scene individuals rendered by one herself very much willing to be respectfully among them."-Robert Coles, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Medical Humanities and former James Agee Professor of Social Ethics, Harvard University "Hunt, who was President Clinton's ambassador to Austria, has put together interviews with 26 Bosnian women. They come from different backgrounds but share an emotional strength and a generosity of spirit, a dignity and humanity, that together make the case for a greater role for women in the politics of their societies-and make the rest of the world's hesitancy to intervene to defend human rights in Bosnia very hard to justify."-Stanley Hoffmann, Foreign Affairs "I met Swanee Hunt as a diplomat in Vienna. I worked beside her as an activist in the Balkans. Now I know her as a writer, addressing a world sorely in need of her message of challenge and hope. Her words resonate with the authenticity of an observer and advocate who has devoted not only attention, time, and position, but also soul."-Queen Noor of Jordan, humanitarian activist for world peace and justice and author of the best-selling book Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life "Swanee Hunt is a diplomat, human rights advocate, and teacher. With This Was Not Our War she shows she is also a gifted listener and writer. In these pages, Hunt captures the rationales and rationalizations for war as well as the despair and stirring dignity of twenty-six women who lived through the Bosnian horrors. Hunt lets the women speak for themselves, telling the story of Bosnia's descent and recovery their way, and, in so doing, she shows just how vital their voices, insights, and talents will be in rebuilding Bosnia and its shattered lives."-Samantha Power, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide