None of Us Were Like This Before: American Soldiers and Torture

By Joshua E. S. Phillips

None of Us Were Like This Before recounts the dark journey of a tank battalion as its focus switched from conventional warfare to guerrilla war and prisoner detention. Phillips’s narrative reveals how a group of ordinary soldiers, ill trained for the responsibilities foisted upon them, descended into a cycle of degradation that led to the abuse of detainees. The book illustrates that the damaging legacy of torture is not only borne by the detainees, but also by American soldiers and the country to which they have returned.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781844679294

Joshua E. S. Phillips

Joshua E. S. Phillips is based in New York City and has reported from Asia and the Middle East. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Newsweek, Salon, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among other publications. His radio features have been broadcast on NPR and the BBC. In 2009, Phillips received the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and the Newspaper Guild's Heywood Broun Award of Substantial Distinction for his American Radio Works documentary What Killed Sergeant Gray.

Reviews for None of Us Were Like This Before

[bibliomaven777 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the very best nonfiction books about the war on terror, told through third and first person narrative accounts. The book explores how American military forces become engaged in torture during battlefield operations, and the myriad costs to them, their detainees, and to the war on terror itself.