A collection of Alex Danchev's essays on the theme of art, war, and terror, this book offers a sustained demonstration of the way in which works of art can help us explore the most difficult ethical and political issues of our time: war, terror, extermination, torture, and abuse. The volume takes seriously the idea of the artist as moral witness to this realm, considering war photography, for example, as a form of humanitarian intervention. Contributors also consider war poetry, war films, and war diaries in a broad view of art and war. Kafka is drawn upon to address torture and abuse in the war on terror; Homer is utilized to critique current talk of "barbarisatio;." the paintings of Gerhard Richter are used to investigate the terrorists of the Baader-Meinhof group; and the photographs of Don McCullin and the writings of Vassily Grossman and Primo Levi allow one writer to propose an ethics of small acts of altruism. The collection examines the nature of conflict over the last century, from the Great War to the current "Global War on Terror," investigating what it means to be human in war, the nature of the costs exacted, and ways of coping. Several of these essays therefore have a biographical focus. Includes essays on Liddell Hart and Evelyn Waugh.

Contents:
Introduction: Out of the Marvellous, or, Scholarship and the Magic Arts
1. The Artist and the Terrorist, or, The Paintable and the Unpaintable: Gerhard Richter and the Baader-Meinhof Group
2. The Face, or, Senseless Kindness: war Photography and the Ethics of Responsibility
3. Provenance, or Authenticity: The Guitar Player and the Arc of a Life
4. Broomstick Horrors, or, The Fog-Walker in the Wood: Keeping up Appearances in the Great War
5. The Strategy of Still Life, or, Art and Current Affairs: Georges Braque and the Occupation
6. All This Happened, or, The Real Waugh: Sword of Honour and the Literature of the Second World War
7. The secret Life, or, The Soldier's Tale: Diaries and Diary-Keeping in War
8. Like a Dog, or, Animal House on the Night Shift: Kafka and Abu Ghraib
9. It's All Fucked Up, or, The Non-Fiction Horror Movie: The Cinema and the War on Terror
10. Waiting for the Barbarians, or, The Hospitality of War: Civilisation and Barbarism in the War on Terror