
This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace
Review by Stanley Hoffmann
Foreign Affairs
September/October 2005
Books that report the experiences of people who have been
the victims of history and survived — sometimes by their own efforts,
sometimes by chance, sometimes by shady compromises — rarely get
serious review treatment. They should. Hunt, who was President
Bill Clinton's ambassador to Austria, has put together interviews
with 26 Bosnian women. They come from different backgrounds but
share an emotional strength and a generosity of spirit, a dignity
and humanity, that together make the case for a greater role for
women in the politics of their societies — and make the rest of
the world's hesitancy to intervene to defend human rights in Bosnia
very hard to justify.