"The stories, essays, and poems in this volume portray the effects of war in our time and the shadows they cast, from the Pacific campaigns of World War II to genocide under the Khmer Rouge to hostilities in the Middle East. Soldiers, however, are not in the foreground in most of these works. More often, the writers depict war as a destructive force on the lives of children, women, and other civilians, and capture the lasting, complex ways in which innocent individuals and communities are harmed. Works such as those in Enduring war tell the truths that history and politics hide, challenge our ethical reasoning, and deepen our emotional understanding of war and its consequences"--Page 4 of cover.