ABSTRACT
American literary war journalism has had a rich and, sadly, long tradition dating back to at least the Civil War. While it has changed considerably over the years, in both form and content, for reasons linked as much to the evolution of weaponry and battle tactics as to the blurring ethics of war reporting, two constants have remained: its potent and poignant use of irony and understatement. In covering a century and a half of literary journalism produced by American writers about citizens and soldiers from the Civil War to the current War on Terror, this chapter demonstrates how American literary war journalism, as an alternative to war literature and traditional war journalism, as well as to the historical legacies that have emerged from or given rise to both, has sought different ways to perceive and capture the aesthetics of the war experience.
