The first casualty: the war correspondent as hero and myth-maker from the Crimea to Kosovo, by Phillip Knightley with an introduction by John Pilger.
With war again disfiguring many parts of the world, Phillip Knightley’s classic could not be more relevant. ‘The first casualty when war comes, is truth’, said American Senator Hiram Johnson in 1917.’ 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 finds that the war correspondent’s role as a seeker of truth is in jeopardy.
‘Invaluable for anyone with an interest in the media, it is equally recommended as a modern history of government lies.’
– Times Literary Supplement
‘Disturbing, even dismaying, yet also in its painful way, enormously entertaining.’
– New Yorker
‘[This book] may make us all a little more free to talk about and find the truth.’
– Garry Wills, New York Times Book Review
‘Myths are exploded, scoundrels unmasked, the best and worst of the history of a century plainly revealed.’
– Morley Safer
About the author
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, 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).
This is the 2000 edition. RRP $36.99 Copies are available for $29.99 plus $5.00 postage and handling (minus discount for Evatt members).
Knightley, Phillip (2000), The first casualty: the war correspondent as hero and myth-maker from Crimea to Kosovo, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, pbk, xiii+574 pp.
ISBN 0-8018-6951-X
