This gripping and important book brings alive over two hundred years of humanitarian interventions. Freedom’s Battle illuminates the p...
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reviews
Aug 06, 2011
I just started this book, but his opening premise put me off a bit. While I understand his point that humanitarian intervention is not a new thing, using the Victorian Era as some kind of guiding light seems far-fetched both because it was also an era of colonialism, and because the world was so different then that there is simply no comparison. Perhaps humanitarian intervention is more controversial now because, with ostensible aggressor and aggressee living next door to each other and oftentim
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Jul 24, 2011
Purporting to "shatter" the misconception that humanitarian intervention was invented by Jimmy Carter, this thoroughly unnecessary book drags through the 19th century with glosses of the Greek Rebellion, Bulgarians, the Crimean War and Armenians, "proving" that because the British and the French needed the Ottoman Empire, their interventions were actually totally philanthropic on behalf of beleaguered people--some of whom weren't even Christians! They didn't have ulterior mo
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Apr 17, 2009
Walt
rated it: 
Gary Bass has written an innovative book that broadens the idea of humanitarian intervention. Though we might like to regard contemporary anti-genocide campaigns as unique achievements of our times, Freedom's Battle offers a striking and original argument that activists and politicians of the 19th century paved the way with a series of interventions to stop the slaughter of innocents. Bass's new and provocative reading of 19th-century political history teaches us how to better react to the genoc
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Oct 19, 2009
Khorberg
rated it:
Is a good historical overview, but neglects to address the issue of how lessons of 19th century humanitarianism can be applied today.
Mar 18, 2009
Ann
rated it: 
The historical part - humanitarian interventions and wars in the 19th century - was interesting. But the modern part - the lessons of the 19th century and how they can be applied today - got a little preachy.
Jan 21, 2009
Elizabeth
rated it:
Reviews four instances of actual, near or pretend 'humanitarian intervention' in the 19th century (Greece, Syria, Bulgaria, Armenia - some reflection on Cuba), both as lessons for today and to suggest that such action is hardly a new idea.
Nice to read some well-researched, non-contemporary case studies, but unimpressed with Bass's conclusions, which are mostly (a) obvious, (b) irrelevant to contemporary global order, or (c) contradictory. Might have been more useful as a mediation on More...
Nice to read some well-researched, non-contemporary case studies, but unimpressed with Bass's conclusions, which are mostly (a) obvious, (b) irrelevant to contemporary global order, or (c) contradictory. Might have been more useful as a mediation on More...
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