On October 28, The Joiner Speaker Series sponsored a talk by author Nan Levinson, who spoke about her book “War Is Not a Game.” Levinson is also the author of “Outspoken: Free Speech Stories” as well as a writer, journalist, and professor at Tufts University. Her contributions to the fields of civil liberties, politics, and culture are well renowned.  

“War Is Not a Game” focuses on the new soldiers’ antiwar movement. Beginning with the start of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) on July 23, 2004, this book speaks honestly about the traumatic occupations of those in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as noting the startling struggles they face after returning home. By highlighting groups such as the IVAW, Veterans for Peace, Winter Soldier, Warrior Writers, Combat Paper, and number of other veteran activist and art groups in her book, Levinson created a more humanized image of the soldiers’ response to war. She started “War is Not a Game” being “utterly civilian, utterly antiwar, and pretty much anti-military,” and after spending several years interacting with antiwar groups as well as families to gain the content for this book, Levinson ended up feeling mostly the same, except being much more antiwar.
Levinson keeps newspaper cutouts of articles that involve the subject of war and she mentions the alarming amount of connections between war and everyday life. She referenced how the language is used in common conversations, in video game titles, children’s activities, analogies, and very often in the news. Levinson talked about how America claims to be a peace-loving country but spends over half of all federal discretionary spending on its defense budget and has been at war for over half of the past fifty years, not including off the record endeavors. Her talk challenged the normative view of war, and turned into an expressive and congruent conversation during her Q&A segment. Overall, Nan Levinson and her book, “War is Not a Game,” work to communicate the reality of the American military experience and help demonstrate the complications of denying this matter.