Media Center: ‘Vietnam War: An Intimate History’ by Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns
WHO: Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns
WHAT: THE VIETNAM WAR
An Intimate History
WHEN: Published by Knopf September 5, 2017
WHERE: Companion book to
the 10-Part PBS series airing across America
WHY: “Vivid, affecting,
definitive, and essential.
“In their new ‘intimate’ yet capacious history, the award-winning, audience-enthralling duo of historian and screenwriter Ward and documentarian extraordinaire Burns investigate the complex, divisive, and tragic Vietnam War from a unique plurality of perspectives. The consistently lucid, flowing, and dramatic narrative begins with French colonial rule in Indochina, then marches forward through every phase of Vietnam’s struggle for independence, the international intervention that divided the country, the ensuing civil war, and the Cold War–instigated, ultimately catastrophic American embroilment over four administrations.
“With the combined impact of robustly detailed writing and more than 500 staggering photographs, Ward and Burns thoroughly chronicle horrific combat and relentless bombing missions, the mass deployment of napalm and Agent Orange, the suffering and death of civilians, the resiliency of North Vietnamese forces, and the powerful antiwar movement. The eye-opening stories of key public figures, from Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem to Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, are matched by those of ‘ordinary’ people, including American and South and North Vietnamese soldiers and their families; an American doctor POW; a woman field nurse; a young, long-separated North Vietnamese couple; antiwar activists, including war veterans; and Vietnamese refugees.
“With reflections by prominent journalists and writers, including Philip Caputo and Viet Thanh Nguyen, this is a vivid, affecting, definitive, and essential illustrated history.”
–Donna Seaman, in a starred review for BOOKLIST
“An outstanding, indispensable survey.
A sweeping, richly illustrated narrative of a conflict fast retreating in memory.”
–KIRKUS, starred review
“Well-written and deeply researched.”
–PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Media Resources:
About the book and authors | Read an excerpt | Download the jacket | Download Washington Mall photo | Download Pvt Crocker photo | Download First Battalion photo | Download North Vietnamese photo | Download Ward author photo | Download Burns photo | Watch a clip from the PBS documentary
Knopf. 612 pages. $60
With 521 color and b&w photographs and 12 maps
ISBN 978-0-307-70025-4
To interview the authors, contact:
Jess Purcell | 212-572-2082 | jpurcell@penguinrandomhouse.com