Bomb Children: Life in the Former Battlefields of Laos

Half a century after the CIA's Secret War in Laos-the largest bombing campaign in history-explosive remnants of war continue to be part of people's everyday lives. In Bomb Children Leah Zani offers a perceptive analysis of the long-term, often subtle, and unintended effects of massive air warfare. Zani traces the sociocultural impact of cluster submunitions-known in Laos as "bomb children"-through stories of explosives clearance technicians and others living and working in these old air strike zones. Zani presents her ethnography alongside poetry written in the field, crafting a startlingly beautiful analysis of state terror, authoritarian revival, rapid development, and ecological contamination. In so doing, she proposes that postwar zones are their own cultural and area studies, offering new ways to understand the parallel relationship between ongoing war violence and postwar revival.

Author: Leah Zani
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 07/26/2019
Pages: 184
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9781478004851

Review Citation(s):
Choice 12/01/2019

About the Author
Leah Zani is a Junior Fellow in the Social Science Research Network at the University of California, Irvine.