1 . War has long been understood as men’s business. The memoirs of generals and front-line soldiers compete for shelf space with edited collections of letters from soldiers and military histories largely written by men. This book is a good reminder that it is not only men who experience wars, and it is not only men who report on them. War reporters such as the Sunday Times’ Marie Colvin, killed in Syria covering the siege of Homs in 2012, have brought the realities of war into our homes.
Mackrell’s lively book tells the stories of six of the female reporters who reported on the Second World War. Some, such as Martha Gellhom and Lee Miller, are well known, others, like Virginia Cowles and Helen Kirkpatrick, now less so. Clare Hollingworth, the only British war reporter included here, filed the first eyewitness account of the German invasion of Poland in 1939.
Mackrell also tells the story of the war through their writing. As France fell in the early summer of 1940, Cowles travelled to Paris. Her description of the mass escape from that city as Nazi troops approached—think of noise and confusion, of the thick smell of petrol, of shouts, curses and tears—is still a vivid reminder of the impact of war today.
The women whose lives and work are recorded here regularly put their lives in danger—perhaps none more so than Sigrid Schultz, whose reports from Berlin conveyed the horror of Hitler's rule to an American audience. In 1945 she returned, with fellow reporters Kirkpatrick and Ed Murrow, to report on the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp. Mackrell reveals the full extent of the danger faced by Schultz only at the end of this book. Like the copy by her subject, it is an essential read.
1. What makes it special about the book?| A．It is a report of wars and their impacts. |
| B．It is a memoir of generals and front-line soldiers. |
| C．It is an edited collection of letters from soldiers. |
| D．It is a collection of stories about women war reporters. |
| A．Marie Colvin worked and died in the World War II. |
| B．Clare Hollingworth was the first to report the German invasion of Poland. |
| C．Cowles' detailed description of her travel reminded readers of the war. |
| D．Sigrid Schultz may often risk her life while doing her job in Berlin. |
| A．To advertise for a book about World War II. |
| B．To introduce a book about women reporters. |
| C．To provide guidance on becoming a good reporter. |
| D．To stress the importance of female reporter in history. |
