The First Casualty: Your essential guide
The revised edition of Phillip Knightley's classic study of war, lies, lying and liars is now available.
The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker from the Crimea to Kosovo
By Phillip Knightley
In conjunction with our seminar on investigative journalism, the Evatt Foundation has a limited number of copies of Phillip Knightley's classic study of war reporting available for purchase by our members and readers. This is the 2000 edition, updated from the famous 1975 version to include chapters on the Falklands, the first Gulf War and the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
Copies are available for $32.95 plus $5.00 postage and handling. For Evatt Foundation members only, copies are available for a special discount price of $29.95 plus $5.00 postage and handling. To order your copy, click on the following to go to our publications order page.
About The First Casualty
"The first casualty when war comes, is truth," said American Senator Hiram Johnson in 1917, and in his gripping, now-classic history of war journalism, Phillip Knightley shows just how right Johnson was. From William Howard Russell, who described the appalling conditions of the Crimean War in the Times [London], to the ranks of reporters, photographers, and cameramen who captured the realities of war in Vietnam, The First Casualty tells a fascinating story of heroism and collusion, censorship and suppression, myth-making and propaganda. Since Vietnam, Knightley finds, governments have become much more adept at managing the media, and in new chapters on the Falklands, the Gulf War, and the former Yugoslavia, he concludes that the war correspondent's role as a seeker of truth is now in jeopardy.
"Disturbing, even dismaying, yet also in its painful way, enormously entertaining."
"[This book] may make us all a little more free to talk about and find the truth."
"In war, truth may be the first casualty, but in Phillip Knightley's compelling examination of the war correspondent as journalist-mouthpiece-propagandist, the truth survives unscathed. Myths are exploded, scoundrels unmasked, the best and worst of the history of a century plainly revealed."
"Few books have deserved an updated edition more than Phillip Knightley's history of war reporting since the 1850s . . . Invaluable for anyone with an interest in the media, it is equally recommended as a modern history of government lies."
Winner of the 1976 Overseas Press Club of America Award for the Best Book on Foreign Affairs
About Phillip Knightley
Phillip Knightley was born in Australia and headed for Fleet Street in the early 1950s. The author of ten books and one of the world's most distinguished investigative journalists, he was a special correspondent for the Sunday Times for twenty years and a leader of its celebrated Insight team of investigative reporters. A multi-award winning journalist and writer, and the author of the classic work The First Casualty: A History of War, Correspondents and Propaganda (revised edition, Prion 2000), he uncovered the Kim Philby spy scandal and played a central role in exposing both the 1963 Profumo sex scandal and the thalidomide birth defects. He is one of only two journalists to have been twice named journalist of the year in the British Press Awards. Among his other awards are Granada Reporter of the Year (1982), the Chef and Brewer Crime Writers' Award (1983), and the Overseas Press Club of America Award for the best book on foreign affairs (1975, for The First Casualty). Phillip Knightley's latest book is Australia: A Biography of a Nation (Random House 2000), and he currently serves as the European representative on the advisory committee of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
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See also
- Manhattan to Baghdad: Despatches from the frontline in the war on terror, by Phillip Knightley
- Investigative Journalism: Phillip Knightley with Chris Masters
- Propaganda wars a no-man's land for investigative reporters, by Richard Ackland
- The death of investigative journalism and who killed it? by Phillip Knightley
- Who killed investigative journalism? by Chris Masters
- A history lesson on Iraq: The roots of revolt, by Phillip Knightley
- The First Casualty: Introduction to the revised edition", by John Pilger
- Memo to the media, from William Greider, Gore Vidal and other US writers.