I have read many books on the Korean War, but Ghost Flames reminded me how much I don't know, and in the best of ways. Authors tend to tell war stories gazing broadly downwards from 50,000 feet high gazing where only generals, presidents, and a few major cities are visible. Hanley takes the opposite approach - quite literally the stories he shares are often from individuals in tiny villages looking upward at bombers flying far above them. Much unlike the traditional war narrative which tells of one pristine, heroic side with a nominal glance towards a nameless, faceless dishonorable enemy, Hanley presents individuals from all sides - American, Korean, Chinese, British and somewhere in-between. Much more than caricatures representing a monolith of their nationality, these are real individual people with different motivations and goals caught up the conflicts, traumas, and complications of war. Too often war is presented as if two lines of soldiers meet in a field somewhere away from civilization, from civilians, in isolation after everyone else fled. After this book, I can't ever imagine that again. There may be a place for the cold, stoic academic telling of what happened during a war, but Ghost Flames reminded me that behind every statistic about millions dead, behind every summary of thousands of gallons of napalm dropped from airplanes, there are individuals on the ground invisible from such a distance who have stories to tell.

Anytime a new history of a major event appears, it's proper for readers to wonder how it broadens the conversation, what it adds. In his history of the Korean War, Charles J. Hanley shines a light on shadowed corners. Not only did I learn more about the origins of the war and how the ideology both those embracing Communism and those embracing democracy was influenced - I learned how American advisors were stuck in WWII thinking. The biggest contribution here, though, is that Hanley places a face on a war so few know much about. Readers will learn how the conflict affected college students, young children, middle class families who thought themselves safe, villagers, and correspondents. Hanley's knack for making research feel immediate will keep you turning pages.

I appreciate the chance to read and review this book. I'll admit that even though I'm a history nerd, this is a war I don't really know all that much about. I wanted to learn more about it, especially since both of my grandfathers served in the war. The thing that I liked most about this book is something that I also tried to incorporate into the history papers I wrote in college... multiple points of view from "regular" people. Not decision makers, policy makers... the big wigs that will get remembered in history for the good or bad things that they did... but the normal, everyday person that just had to deal with what was going on around them. It gives a different perspective on any war and I really appreciated it in this book. My only issue was some of the formatting, however, I think that was because this was an advanced copy and not the final format.

The Korean War is a seemingly forgotten conflict lost between the giant wars of World War II and Vietnam. But Ghost Flames by Charles J. Hanley makes a very convincing case that the Korean War is just as violent and ripe with human tragedy as those other conflicts. Hanley traces the impact of the Korean War through a series of individuals on different sides and viewpoints of the conflict from soldiers, journalists, and families representing both Koreas, Americans, and Chinese figures.

Hanley does a great job of weaving all these narratives together to produce a methodically paced narrative that produces a day by day month by month look at how the war affected whomever the story was focused on in the moment. This creates the feeling in the reader like they are actually moving slowly on the ground as the Korean War grows into a sad, depressing, stalemate of questionable value that cost many lives.

My only complaint is that the methodical pace kept up for about seventy-five percent of the book really accelerated to cover the last year or so as though the writer or publisher was working on a page count or something. It made for a quick last hundred or so pages, but really lost something in the detail.

I requested this book off NetGalley because I know only vague generalities about the Korean War from high school history, and the diversity of perspectives that Hanley uses to compose his narrative were a lot more thorough than most war histories I’ve seen. I wasn’t disappointed when I read through this. The white perspectives aren’t just those fighting in the war; they include a British communist reporter and a nun who set up a clinic, and a black soldier who ended up defecting to the North. The Korean perspectives aren’t just strictly North and South, either; they have defecters from both sides, civilians, and children. They don’t just focus on North Korean atrocities; apparently there were numerous examples of American and South Korean soldiers being given orders to shoot and kill villagers and refugees, and numerous slaughters along the lines of My Lai in the upcoming Vietnam War. It’s by no means anything approaching a light read, but the thoroughness allowed me to learn more about a part of history that I only knew vague things about. This comes out in May, and I highly recommend you read it when it does.

This is the second time in the last two months I've recommended a book as a potentially excellent gift for the precocious teenaged history nerd (if such creatures still exist) and then felt the need to apologize if it seems like I'm damning a book with faint praise. This book (and the other one) are great books. They capture, in different ways, the drama and sweep of history. This book is grittier and involves more senseless slaughter than sensitive souls may be able to tolerate, but any 12+-year-old who has watched or read Game of Thrones should find nothing new here.

Some interesting information about the author, from Wikipedia: Hanley is the co-author of a book about the Korean-War-era massacre of civilians by U.S. forces at No Gun Ri. The book was published less than a week before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As a result, in spite of positive reviews, sales were unspectacular as the book tour was cancelled and people were understandably concerned about other matters.

This book recycles a lot of information from the 2001 book as a long, thoroughly-researched, set piece at the beginning of this book. I asked myself while reading this set piece: Is this level of detail going to be maintained throughout the book? If so, this book is going to be a long slog. The answer is: no, the focus zooms out a bit after that, which is a good thing. If you want a detailed account of the battle for Pork Chop Hill, near the war's end, you should look for other books.

This book reminded me of certain large-ensemble movies (Robert Altman's “Nashville”) and TV shows (“The Wire”) that I've seen and enjoyed. Like these examples, the book introduces to a diverse group of people, not just Korean but also American, British, and Chinese, who then criss-cross the narrative and the Korean peninsula for the duration of the war and beyond. Since this is non-fiction, however, the characters do NOT actually interact with each other.

I don't think I'm giving away any spoilers to say that the book portrays the war as a senseless waste of human life, in which egotistic leaders on both sides trafficked in unwarranted rosy predictions of the outcome of their strategies, while rank-and-file soldiers tried, with limited success, to resist the temptation to become corrupt and immoral animals. In this respect, the Korean War differs little from wars before, or since.

While I'm thinking of the Korean War and young history nerds, let me also hope that reading this book might convince the young to get down the recollections of Korean War veterans in their midst before it is too late. World War II veterans are now becoming thin on the ground, and it won't be long before the scythe comes for the next set of old soldiers.

Thank you to Netgalley and Public Affairs Books for a free advance egalley copy of this book for review.

Before reading “Ghost Flames,” I felt that my knowledge of the Korean War was basic, at best. Now having read Chris Hanley’s work, instead of merely feeling like I understand conflict better, I feel like I know it on a level that I didn’t anticipate was possible. By ambitiously deciding to construct his narrative through the personal accounts of women and men hailing from all sides of the war, Hanley has crafted a history that is not only informatively in-depth but intensely intimate. By following the war from start to finish from a wide array of different perspectives, I feel like I almost got to experience the conflict by going far beyond just dates, names and names and encountering everything from the actual desperate fighting that burned in the paddies, hills, and cities of Korea, to the frantic flights taken by millions of refugees.

Hanley deserves praise in particular for helping provide a sense of the incredible human cost of this conflict, especially for the millions of Koreans whose lives were affected. The scale of disruption, upheaval and the immense suffering that the people of the Korean peninsula endured are nearly unbelievable, and thankfully for once, it is not glossed over. In this account it is unavoidably everywhere, just as it was during the actual war itself.

If I ever cross paths with anyone who wishes to learn more about the so-called “forgotten” war, this is definitely the book that I am going to tell them to put right at the very top of their to-read list. "Ghost Flames" has an immense amount to teach through its collection of perspectives and will help make this conflict come alive with an incredible intensity.

The book provides details of the Korean War that took place in June 1950.

The author ingeniously combines stories shared by survivors in the war that weaves into one incongruous plot.

The information shared is very dense and emotional. It is not easy material to read. There were many causalities on both sides, including innocent civilians. The nation of korea was devastated by the bombings and diseases!

I am definitely buying the book for myself. For any history buff, I highly recommend this book.

Amazing book. Author has unique writing style and I dare you to go a day without reading some of it. You will come to know many people and the different perspectives they experienced in this war. You will find there are some people you desperately want to know what happened next but you have to wait. Excellent book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

ARC from NET GALLEY

If you don;t know why all the fuss over North Korea getting nukes, read this book.

If you find it strange there has been two armies facing each other for 50 years armed to the tweet, read this book.

Mr. Hanley's experience is on full display as he takes away from those leaders who are always to blame and inside the lives of five who pay the actual price.

Truly riveting account of a war that has been FORGOTTEN but never truly FINISHED!!!