Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

" Replacing tyranny with justice, healing deep scars, exchanging hatred for hope . . . the women in This Was Not Our War teach us how. "--William Jefferson Clinton

This Was Not Our War shares amazing first-person accounts of twenty-six Bosnian women who are reconstructing their society following years of devastating warfare. A university student working to resettle refugees, a paramedic who founded a veterans' aid group, a fashion designer running two nonprofit organizations, a government minister and professor who survived Auschwitz--these women are advocates, politicians, farmers, journalists, students, doctors, businesswomen, engineers, wives, and mothers. They are from all parts of Bosnia and represent the full range of ethnic traditions and mixed heritages. Their ages spread across sixty years, and their wealth ranges from expensive jewels to a few chickens. For all their differences, they have this much in common: all survived the war with enough emotional strength to work toward rebuilding their country. Swanee Hunt met these women through her diplomatic and humanitarian work in the 1990s. Over the course of seven years, she conducted multiple interviews with each one. In presenting those interviews here, Hunt provides a narrative framework that connects the women's stories, allowing them to speak to one another.

The women describe what it was like living in a vibrant multicultural community that suddenly imploded in an onslaught of violence. They relate the chaos; the atrocities, including the rapes of many neighbors and friends; the hurried decisions whether to stay or flee; the extraordinary efforts to care for children and elderly parents and to find food and clean drinking water. Reflecting on the causes of the war, they vehemently reject the idea that age-old ethnic hatreds made the war inevitable. The women share their reactions to the Dayton Accords, the end of hostilities, and international relief efforts. While they are candid about the difficulties they face, they are committed to rebuilding Bosnia based on ideals of truth, justice, and a common humanity encompassing those of all faiths and ethnicities. Their wisdom is instructive, their courage and fortitude inspirational.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Preface
• Context
• The Balkans
• Key Players
• Introduction
• I Madness
• 1 Hell Breaks Loose
• 2 Love in the Crucible
• 3 Reasons for the War
• 4 The Lie of Intractable Hatred
• II To Heal History
• 5 Challenges
• 6 Women Transforming
• 7 The Road to Reconciliation
• Epilogue: The Courage to Hope
• Profiles
• Closing Thoughts
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Drawing on seven years of interviews, diplomatic and humanitarian work in the region and personal visits to Bosnia throughout the 1990s, Hunt-a former U.S. ambassador to Austria and founder of Women Waging Peace-presents the testimony of 26 women who survived the region's horrific upheavals. Hunt juxtaposes private moments with public meetings and differences of opinion with common convictions. Women speak wrenchingly and courageously about the fight to save their homes and protect their children; the decision to stay or flee; the attempt to preserve their own bodies and souls; and the ongoing challenge to rebuild their lives and society. (The book includes 32 color photos and two maps.) Despite differences of opinion on most other issues, Hunt's ethnically and religiously diverse interviewees all agree that political greed rather than obstinate ethnic hatred fueled the conflict. The director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Hunt succeeds in capturing, organizing and analyzing the complexities inherent in conversations with 26 very different people during and after an abhorrent war. "Life goes on, and life wins," says Mediha Filipovic, the only female member of parliament in the first Bosnian national assembly and Bosnia's current ambassador to Sweden. Readers will be inspired by her courage, and that of the others here, in saying so. Agent, John Taylor Williams. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Hunt, director of the Harvard-based Women and Public Policy Program and former US ambassador to Austria (1993-97), features 26 Bosnian women engaged in the reconstruction of their war-torn society. The book conveys their insights and experiences during the breakup of Bosnia and its subsequent rebuilding. The women selected display impressive energy, talent, and humanitarianism. Most were highly educated and well placed in their pre-war societies. While the women reflect the Bosnian mosaic, they share a conviction that the horrific violence of the 1990s was not caused by ancient hatreds. As the title suggests, they tend to believe that women are vital to a successful peace process for a war they would not have started. Hunt intersperses direct quotations in chapters framing a narrative of the Bosnian story from their points of view. The valuable "Profiles" section includes a large photograph of each along with a biographic page making it possible to identify personalities. Hunt deftly creates a coherent and compelling narrative offering a valuable contribution to the scholarship reflecting the call in Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) for the full participation of women in peace processes. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All levels. N. N. Haanstad Weber State University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Swanee Hunt chairs the Washington-based Institute for Inclusive Security. During her tenure as U.S. ambassador to Austria (1993-97), she hosted negotiations and symposia focused on securing the peace in the neighboring Balkan states. She is a member of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, the president of Hunt Alternatives Fund, and the author of Worlds Apart: Bosnian Lessons for Global Security and Half-Life of a Zealot , both also published by Duke University Press.