Aftermath: The Remnants of War

I did not expect his book to grab me the way it did, yeah I'd read about all the land mines left in Iran etc. but to learn about the extent of unexploded munitions left worldwide from conflicts dating back a century was a shock. Mr. Webster took me around the world to places I wouldn't have imagined, the affluent young French wife who found her son playing in the yard with live German artillary shells, the plains of Russia still hiding live munitions, even a forgotten test range that is now a San Diego suburb where children playing found live unexploded artillary.Twenty, forty, a hundred years later this stuff is unstable and more dangerous than new, triggers have deteriorated, anything can set them off, and men go to work daily risking their lives to clear high explosives from places that were once battlefields and now are parks, farms, and residential areas.This was one of those books that left a permanent impression on me, Mr. Webster's frank narrative showed a world more dangerous and unpredictable than I ever imagined.

excellent book when i started reading i could not put it down,i wish it had more pictures in it, i'm russian born and while in russia till 1978 never visited the sites that mr.webster spoke about.

Aftermath, which Webster researched personally and in incredibe detail, is thought provoking to the point of being shocking. The history and scale of this century's warfare that he reveals has given me, a former US Navy officer, a new-found respect for foot soilders and their terrible burdens. As a father of young children, Aftermath left me with a sadness for those people of France, Kuwait, Viet Nam, and a thousand other battle sites, who have grown up with the explosive and toxic remnants of modern man's conflicts. Be warned. Don Webster's prowess as a writer (National Geographic, NY Times, etc.) is obvious. You won't want to put the book down once you start.

Webster explores an interesting topic -- he revisits sites central to twentieth century warfare, and writes about the continuing physical effects of warfare on those battlefields. This book is part history and part travelogue. His opening chapter on the World War I battlefields of France and the men who work there to this day removing unexploded artillery shells is particularly beautiful and haunting. The subject matter is intriguing, and Webster's writing and approach are elegantly simple.

If you've followed Webster's career at all (Outside, The New Yorker, National Geographic), you already know his ability to unearth all the right local characters, draw them out and distill their musings into a coherent sense of place. In this, he applies the same brand of cozy reportage to a timely (needless to say, overlooked) issue of global (though not necessarily domestic) significance. This is also good, fun stuff to read. And despite Browne's concern about the author's facts in his NYT review (from a reviewer who badly misspells the author's name in the very same review, no less!), the book is deeply researched and lucidly told. If you at all study the tragedy of war and the follies of humankind (and who can avoid that, anymore), this is a good stand-alone primer.