When the War Was Over - by Elizabeth Becker (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The authoritative history of the Cambodian Revolution and its aftermath

"An impressive feat of scholarship and reporting: intelligent, measured, resourceful." --Washington Post

The day they took over Cambodia in 1975, the Khmer Rouge closed the borders and drove the citizens out of towns and cities into the countryside, where they were forced to labor endlessly in the fields. Torture, terror, starvation, and death became routine. The intelligentsia was exterminated. Ultimately, almost two million people--nearly a quarter of the Cambodian population--were killed in one of the twentieth century's worst crimes against humanity.

When the War Was Over is award-winning journalist Elizabeth Becker's masterful history of the Cambodian nightmare, from its origins in French colonialism and the Vietnam War, to dictator Pol Pot's political education in Paris, to the killing fields across Cambodia. In this newly updated edition, Becker lays out the impact of the Khmer Rouge genocide on modern Cambodia.

Comprehensive, compassionate, and propulsive, When the War Was Over illuminates the darkness of Cambodia with the intensity of a bolt of lightning.

Review Quotes

"A work of the first importance."--New York Times

"Becker writes history as history should be written."--Financial Times

"Burns with its own fire, the fire of a dedicated writer who witnessed the incomprehensible and worked long and hard to comprehend it...An impressive feat of scholarship and reporting: intelligent, measured, resourceful." --Washington Post

"The definitive book on the Cambodian Revolution"--Los Angeles Times Book Review

About the Author

Elizabeth Becker is an award-winning journalist and author who began her career as a war correspondent for the Washington Post in Cambodia. The French movie Meeting with Pol Pot is based on her life. She is the author of four books, including You Don't Belong Here and Overbooked. She lives in Washington, D.C.