Armageddon in Retrospect

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Armageddon in Retrospect
File:Armageddon in retrospect.jpg
Cover of Armageddon in Retrospect
AuthorKurt Vonnegut
CountryUS
LanguageEnglish
GenreFiction, Anthology
PublisherG. P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date
2008
Pages234
ISBN978-0-399-15508-6
Followed byLook at the Birdie 

Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of short stories and essays about war and peace written by Kurt Vonnegut. It is the first posthumous collection of his previously unpublished writings. The book includes an introduction by Mark Vonnegut, a letter from Kurt to his family about his experiences as an American prisoner of war in Nazi Germany, and the fire-bombing of Dresden.[1] Like many of Vonnegut's other books, Armageddon in Retrospect is laden with handwritten quotations and rough drawings by the author.


Several of the stories contained focus on World War II and the bombing of Dresden. In these Vonnegut repeats the incorrect claim that around 200,000 people were killed in the bombing, when in actuality the number is closer to 22,700.[2] The fabricated number is taken from the book The Destruction of Dresden, written by noted Holocaust denier[3] David Irving.[4] Irving also routinely depreciated the numbers of dead in acts committed by the Nazis, such as the Holocaust, which comparatively downplays Nazi atrocities relative to those committed by the Allies.[5] In "Wailing Shall Be in All Streets" Vonnegut also downplays Nazi bombings compared to Dresden when he claims that the allied bombers "managed to exterminate in one bloody night more people than died in the whole London blitz," which is also inaccurate. Around 40,000 civilians were killed in the blitz.[6] Historians claim that Vonnegut's inflated number propagates a false historical awareness.[7]

Contents

  1. Vonnegut's Speech at Clowes Hall, Indianapolis, April 2007
  2. Letter from PFC Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., to his family, May 29, 1945 (not included in audio edition)
  3. "Wailing Shall Be in All Streets"
  4. "Great Day"
  5. "Guns Before Butter"
  6. "Happy Birthday, 1951"
  7. "Brighten Up"
  8. "The Unicorn Trap"
  9. "Unknown Soldier"
  10. "Spoils"
  11. "Just You and Me, Sammy"
  12. "The Commandant's Desk"
  13. "Armageddon in Retrospect"

External links

References

  1. ^ Blount, Jr., Roy (May 4, 2008). "So It Goes". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  2. ^ Shortnews staff (14 April 2010), Alliierte Bombenangriffe auf Dresden 1945: Zahl der Todesopfer korrigiert (in German), archived from the original on 21 February 2014
  3. ^ Hare, Ivan & Weinstein, James (2010). Extreme Speech and Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 553. ISBN 978-0199601790.
  4. ^ Roston, Tom (November 11, 2021). "What Early Drafts of Slaughterhouse-Five Reveal About Kurt Vonnegut's Struggles". Time. New York, NY: Time, Inc. Archived from the original on March 1, 2022. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  5. ^ Guttenplan, D. D. (2001). The Holocaust on Trial. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-02044-4.
  6. ^ Richards, Denis (1974) [1953]. Royal Air Force 1939–1945: The Fight at Odds. Vol. I (paperback ed.). London: HMSO. ISBN 978-0-11-771592-9.
  7. ^ Rigney, Ann (2009). "All This Happened, More or Less: What a Novelist Made of the Bombing of Dresden". History and Theory. 48 (47): 5–24. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
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