I Did It to Save My Life: Love and Survival in Sierra Leone (California Series in Public Anthropology Book 24) 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

Very engaging and very well-written."I Did It to Save My Life" by Catherine Bolten takes the Sierra Leone civil war and breaks down the event into seven different narratives, seven different perspectives of the same event. This was one of the most insightful books I have read on African culture during war. Mrs. Bolten introduces a common thesis throughout the book. She claims that amidst war, the very definition of love and "eating", the anti-love, takes on a materialistic meaning. Love is about survival. She supports that thesis with 7 stories ranging from a Sierra Leonean soldier, to a trader trying to making a living, to a father. Every narrative told shows a different aspect of war and a different way to view love during war. The way the stories are told, you can feel each character come alive within the book. You can feel each character's pain and their struggle to survive. And you can get an explanation of how these characters define love in the environment around them. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the change of culture during a civil war, African culture, and to those looking for touching stories about survival in an environment most of us would call "Hell." This was a great read.

Found what I needed in it.

I must admit that this was NOT exactly the book I thought it would be when I began reading. I was very excited to receive the book, and have actually been awaiting its publication for many years. The author is an expert on Sierra Leone, thus once I received the book, I immediately moved it to the top of my "must-read" pile. As I read the first 50 pages, it became clear that this was not going to be another retelling or analysis of the conflict in Sierra Leone - which was my expectation. Instead, the author provides an ethnographic analysis of seven individuals representative of larger communities or identities present during the conflict. While this methodology was new to me, thus took me a few pages to grow comfortable with; it was very effective/instuctive, and in the end left me very satisfied as the reader. As a product of the American public school system, I must admit that the concept of love in Sierra Leone was a difficult one for me to grasp; however, it is exactly the sort of variable national security professionals must understand prior to embarking on military operations or capacity building efforts in non-western countries. As a military professional and life-long student, this study reinforced the utility of operational culture studies in conflict analysis, operational art, and the development of post-conflict strategy transition strategies. This is not an "easy read" for someone unfamiliar with the methodology; however, it was a very pleasant read, and one that I easily completed on the round-trip of a routine flight. I highly recommend this book for any military or national security professional. This is a "must read" for anyone seeking a greater understanding of the conflict in Sierra Leone.