This eight-volume “library” of American war reporting is a rich resource indeed. “American war reporting” here means the reporting by Americans on wars in which the US is officially involved. So there is nothing on the Spanish Civil War, so memorably described by Americans and close to many American hearts, but nonetheless the range is vast: from French and Indian “Attacks and Provocations” in the 1750s up to the “Abu Ghraib prison scandal.” Volume 1 covers the French and Indian Wars and the Revolutionary War, Volume 2 the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War, Volume 3 the Civil War, Volume 4 the Indian Wars and Spanish-American War, Volume 5 World War I and the World War II European Theatre, Volume 6 the World War II Asian Theatre and the Korean War, Volume 7 Vietnam and post-Vietnam conflicts and Volume 8 the Iraq Wars and the War on Terror. This distribution seems sensible, with the possible exceptions of Volumes 5 and 6 – the Second World War theatres have most in common with each other and the First World War deserves its own volume.

The publishers promise “a firsthand view of what it was like as it happened” and, crucially, the documents are all reports from journalists who were there. The question underlying all conflict representation – must the right to write about war be earned through experience? – is thus implicitly answered in the affirmative. Another tacit editorial line is that the story is the war, not the reporter. It is pleasing to find articles from regional newspapers which present their material with the authority of local knowledge. This said, the greats are represented here – Ernie Pyle, Ed Murrow, Ernest Hemingway – although it is disappointing to find a dearth of women reporters. No Claire Boothe Luce, Martha Gellhorn, Ruth Cowan or Lee Carson (there is a “Lew Carson” in the index but no such person appears on the page cited).

Illuminating the documents are volume, chapter and source overviews, giving useful information on matters such as newspaper circulation numbers, censorship and reporting conditions. The reports are annotated and accompanied by four hundred illustrations. There are helpful bibliographies and timelines and a serviceable index. The home front is not neglected, so it is possible to glean social and economic as well as military information. Wars both “major” and “minor” are included, as are transcriptions of radio and TV reportage.

War studies is a growth area and war literature is increasingly on the curriculum. This eight-volume set will allow the student both to trace the development of American war reporting and to look intensively at individual conflicts. That we understand how war is represented is always important to us – perhaps never more so than now.