Sowing the Dragon's Teeth: Land Mines and the Global Legacy of War

By Philip C. Winslow

Book Overview

Each year an estimated twenty-six thousand people are killed or maimed by land mines-more than 100 million of them sown like the mythical dragon's teeth in over seventy countries. These weapons are designed to maim soldiers, but most victims are civilians, especially the rural poor. Winslow writes about these people and the Campaign to Ban Landmines (which was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize in 1997). He tells about the efforts to pull the dragon's teeth from the earth so that it can be restored to those who live on it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807050059
• ISBN13: 9780807050057
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

real saints

If there are saints in the world, it is the people who clear minefields for a living. This book is a real education into the lives of mine victims and those heroes who clear minefields for others. The stories it tells are very human stories. Very moving, and gives me an understanding of what life is like in areas of serious conflict in the world (with a particular focus on Angola). My only complaint about this book is that the writing could be better (don't get me wrong, it's not bad, it just seems a little choppy). Everyone should read this book. It's a real education into what lives are like for people in Angola.

Landmine statistics transformed into human reality

Dragons' Teeth? Landmines? One and the same. Statistics? People? One and the same. Philip Winslow has taken the seemingly unending plethora of statistics regarding landmine incidents, One every twenty minutes of every day of every year somewhere in the world, and put a human face on the problem. For example: An Angolan woman who has lost a leg to a landmine, and whose brother, as a soldier, placed landmines in the ground in the same country. An American student in Israel who loses a leg while camping. British deminers now working to clear the land. A Canadian Peacekeeper killed in Croatia while removing landmines. All statistics, but also all very real people. And Winslow has the ability to take you to the site of their encounters with these deadly weapons and experience it for yourself. All that is missing is the noise, the smell, the confusion, the anguish - and the pain. A chilling reminder of the monumental problem facing the world community; to rid the land of these "Silent Soldiers," left buried in the ground long after the conflict is over and the human soldiers either have been buried, or have departed for home. And a reminder that Nationality, place of birth, sex, age or affluence makes no difference to the "Silent Soldier" about to be trod upon and detonated. "Must reading" for those North Americans who believe they are not affected, nor will they be affected, by the mines buried in the ground in some far off place. I can unequivocally state that landmines can and do affect "North Americans". My son happens to be the Canadian Peacekeeper mentioned above, and one might therefore say I am biased in regards to this publication. However, having read many reports and publications about landmines in the three years since his death, I have found none that has the ability to pique my interest and compels me to read on, as has "Sowing the Dragon's Teeth." Bravo, Philip Winslow!