Francis Lai Books

This book presents an excellent comprehensive review of historical and current research on hepatitis C viruses. The book is expensive, but of outstanding value. Each chapter is well written by an acknowledged expert in the field and authoritative, providing valuable references to a large body of work. I am pleased to recommend this book to anyone working in viral pathogenesis, viral genomics and antiviral research, as well as infectious disease physicians and educators in virology.

"From Melos To My Lai: Violence, Culture and Survival" explores the relationship between combat experiences recorded from antiquity to the present day, with a particular emphasis on the experiences of the ancient Greeks during their various conquests and those of Americans during the Vietnam War. Through his comprehensive research, Dr. Lawrence A. Tritle provides compelling evidence confirming that "shell shock" and "combat fatigue" were present in ancient civilization and long before the condition was recognized as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Because I am a veteran myself, and have worked professionally in the field of Trauma and PTSD for most of my adult life, I am often puzzled at the claims of those disputing the authenticity of war's psychological effects. What does not surprise me is that the majority of these claims are frequently made by individuals who are neither combat veterans nor mental health professionals. Even more disturbing is the idea that somehow our veterans suffering from PTSD warrant less recognition for their combat induced psychological wounds then those that received a battle related physical injury. In "Melos to My Lai," Tritle works valiantly to dispel any myth that PTSD is somehow a fabrication of sympathy seeking Vietnam veterans.

Although it has been called by many other names throughout the ages (Combat Fatigue, War Neurosis, Delayed Stress, etc.), there is no doubt that PTSD is indeed an ugly reality of war. The following information on PTSD among Vietnam War veterans is taken from the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Survey (NVVRS, 1990) report and provided by the National Center for PTSD (NCPTSD): "The estimated lifetime prevalence of PTSD among American Vietnam theater veterans is 30.9% for men and 26.9% for women. An additional 22.5% of men and 21.2% of women have had partial PTSD at some point in their lives. Thus more than half of all male Vietnam veterans and almost half of all female Vietnam veterans - About 1,700,000 Vietnam veterans in all - have experienced "clinically serious stress reaction symptoms." 15.2% of all male Vietnam theater veterans (479,000 out of 3,140,000 men who served in Vietnam) and 8.1% of all female Vietnam theater veterans (610 out of 7,200 women who served in Vietnam) are current cases of PTSD (Current means 1986-88 when the Survey was conducted)."

The NVVRS report also contains these figures on other PTSD related (or comorbidity) problems of Vietnam veterans: 40% of Vietnam theater veteran men have been divorced at least once (10% had two or more divorces), 14.1% report high levels of martial problems, and 23.1% have high levels of parental problems. Almost half [of male Vietnam theater veterans currently suffering from PTSD] had been arrested or in jail at least once - 34.2% more than once - and 11.5% had been convicted of a felony. The estimated lifetime prevalence of alcohol abuse or dependence among male theater veterans is 39.2%. Keeping this, and numerous other comparable studies in mind, it is not hard to correlate the experience of war to the behavioral reactions of our returning veterans.

As for the question of cross-cultural diagnostic validity with regards to PTSD, I believe the author makes clear parallels between the two cultures examined in the text. Tritle successfully shows how timeless human adaptation to extreme stress really is. Although the diagnostic criteria for PTSD listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) needs to be continuously and carefully weighed against cultural considerations, we know that there are no doubt certain elements innate to human behavior.

If you recall, Shakespeare eluded to human behavioral syncronicity when in his work, "The Merchant of Venice," the character Shylock explains: "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that." If Shakespeare and Shylock are correct in saying that we as humans do share these seemingly cross-cultural indubitable characteristics, why then is it difficult to suppose that like other mental disorders such as schizophrenia or depression, that PTSD could not have existed in the ancient world as well?

From Melos to My Lai, is an intimate look at war and its timeless affect on human nature. Drawing from sources like those of the Athenian historian Thucydides to Homer's,Iliad, Michael Herr's, Dispatches and films like Platoon, Tritle has afforded the reader with a remarkably accurate glimpse into the mind of the combatant, as well as the many innocent victims of war over the centuries. Tritle provides a unique approach to the study of war focusing little on the history of tactics, battles and campaigns. Instead, the principle concern of the book is to show "how societies sustain conflict and violence for prolonged periods, and how the experience of surviving that violence ripples through societies and cultures from one generation to the next."

From the impact of war on waiting wives, lovers and civilian bystanders, to how ordinarily decent men commit acts of extraordinary savagery, Tritle discusses the human response to extreme stress (PTSD) and violence in every age. From Melos to My Lai is a must read for anyone interested in the impact of emotional and physical trauma on the human mind, or for those merely curious about the plain truth regarding the costs of war. Most importantly, the work is an essential resource for the professional working to treat those that suffer with the consequences of violence.

I felt rather disappointed reading this book. I seems to me that the author failed in giving a convincing picture. His comparisons of the Vietmam experience and classical or Homeric Greece are either superficial or forced. I suppose that the book may attract persons more involved in the Vietnam affair than I but I am convinced that this is caused by the Vietnam experience and not by the comparisons with classical Greece.

With impeccable scholarship and remarkable insight, Lawrence Tritle has unearthed and exposed the history of the ordinarily unremarked trauma of war. While deaths are faithfully recorded and wounds usually obvious, the lasting effect of war on the remaining warriors and those close to them has only recently been examined. Shay's "Achilles in Vietnam" was the first to look back at the Illiad and draw a parallel between the "post traumatic stress disorder" found in Vietnam vets and the descriptions of the effect of the Trojan war on Achilles.
Lawrence Tritle has used the juxtaposition of a remote massacre in the Peloponnesian War and the massacre at My Lai some 2500 years later to connect the experience of Greek warriors such as the Spartan general Clearchus with Vietnam veterans to demonstrate that the emotional damage of war, while sometimes recognized, but usually quickly forgotten between wars, is universal.
This book is a great service to Vietnam veterans who can take some comfort that the battles they have fought within themselves have been fought by a long line of others before them, almost always in darkness and silence. For the historian this is a fresh view of war,well researched and analyzed An impressive achievement.

I recently read a book review in a liberal magazine that suggested that "heroism" in future wars would be displayed by "soldiers" typing away at keyboards, protected by distance from physical harm. Naturally, that magazine did not publish my letter disputing its view. That someone could publish such stupidity suggests that the truth about the nature of state-organized military violence has disappeared from the consciousness of certain sections of the American public in the 3 decades since the end of American participation in the Vietnam War.

Of course, "the truth", whatever it is, may have already been hidden from Americans during the Vietnam War. Or, it may be hidden from protected "civilians" - like me - for all time. Which is why I found this book, which examines parallels in personal experience in the Vietnam War and Classical and Homeric Greek soldiers fighting over 2 thousand years ago, so interesting.

The author's stated purpose for writing this book is "to show how the experience of surviving [sustained conflict and violence] for prolonged periods, and how the experience of surviving that violence ripples through societies and cultures from one generation to the next". Most of the book consists of comparisons between the military and civilian experience of war as revealed in historical writing and plays produced by Homeric and Classical Greeks, and history books, novels, and movies about Vietnam. The comparisons are intermixed with some of the author's own combat experiences in Vietnam. Using this material the author attempts to show that the secret life of those who have been exposed to violence is very similar through the ages. Certainly anyone with an interest in warfare in ancient Greece and modern military history will find this interesting material. I think the author makes his case, at least as far as the existence of strong parallels between Classical Greek and American experiences of war. But possibly he overstates his case when he argues for the ubiquitous of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among both Greek and American war veterans.

One problem is that the author appears too willing to accept what appear to me to be exaggerated claims about the post-war toll of the Vietnam War on American servicemen. For example, he writes that suicide has claimed "from ten to one hundred thousand Vietnam veterans" and cites without criticism a newspaper story that 300,000 veterans became hobos. The later number is especially suspect, since less than 4 million Americans actually served in Vietnam, most in non-combat roles. Another problem is that the nature of PTSD itself is a poorly defined psychological condition, the nature and even existence of which is still subject to considerable argument. A third problem is that even if the PTSD occurred frequently in Vietnam and existed in ancient Greece, that doesn't mean it would necessarily exist across all cultures.

So, having just complained about the book in the last paragraph, why do I give it a 4 star rating? Because the historical parallels the author cites are compelling evidence for the existence of similar responses to war over thousands of years. And because the book made me think about the Vietnam War experience, something I have avoided for 30 years. (While I was in the US Army during the war, I never served overseas.) After reading Dr. Tritle's book, I have purchased several other books relating to aspects of the post Vietnam War experience, including "Stolen Valor", and "Trauma; a Genealogy", and pulled out my copy of "Achilles in Vietnam" for re-reading. Any book which makes you want to read more books on the same topic is a good book.

This book should be described better. It is a beginner's guide to sudoku, with many of the usual suggestions. Except by inviting the solver to use trial-and-error at a level that is too easy to require it, it does not really present any sort of new or different approach.

Some, especially beginners, may find the number-by-number solving instructions helpful. The author does walk through the basic rules of sudoku very straightforwardly. Still, the book stops far short of any serious solving techniques. If the author's "fifteen steps" help to solve hard puzzles, he has not shown me how they do it.