Roth's Wars

Treating Philip Roth as a war writeras well as a sportswriter, crime reporter, political commentator, and Newark chroniclerRoths Wars: A Career in Conflict offers a thoroughly researched account of the novelists preoccupation with wars around the world and wars at home. This wide-ranging social and cultural history of Roths career examines intersections between Roths preoccupations as a writer and the work of contemporaries, such as J.D. Salinger, Joan Didion, George Plimpton, Hannah Arendt, E.L. Doctorow, Flannery OConnor, Michael Herr, and Don DeLillo. The legends and icons who figure in this account of Roths career include Dwight Eisenhower, Meyer Lansky, Ernie Pyle, Bob Dylan, Johnny Appleseed, Anne Frank, JFK, Mickey Mantle, the Marx Brothers, Thomas Paine, Sandy Koufax, and Franz Kafka.