Sowing the Dragon's Teeth

Each year an estimated twenty-six thousand people are killed or maimed by land mines-more than 100 million of them sown like the mythical dragon's teeth in over seventy countries. These weapons are designed to maim soldiers, but most victims are civilians, especially the rural poor. Winslow writes about these people and the Campaign to Ban Landmines (which was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize in 1997). He tells about the efforts to pull the dragon's teeth from the earth so that it can be restored to those who live on it.From innocent victims to brave souls who risk their lives . . . Winslow gives the statistics a painfully human face. --The Washington Post Book World

"Philip Winslow transports readers to the villages of eastern Angola to witness the daily havoc wreaked by land mines in a country struggling to keep a fragile peace. . . . Sowing the Dragon's Teeth makes a strong case that a ban [on land mines]-championed by the late Princess Diana-is a necessity." --Frank Quaratiello, Boston Sunday Herald

"Philip Winslow's moving and powerful book shows why some weapons are so insidious that they do not belong in the arsenals of civilized nations. A land mine is such a weapon. It should be banished from the Earth." --U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy

"Compelling . . . testament to the moral urgency to ban this indiscriminate form of warfare." --Kenneth Roth, executive director, Human Rights Watch

"Required reading for anyone who doubts the need to ban the use of antipersonnel land mines. An engaging and compelling firsthand account." --Lieut. General Robert G. Gard, Jr. (U.S. Army, ret.)

"Land mines work their terror impersonally and without warning. Philip Winslow's fine book puts names and faces to the victims and begs us to beware. Only such harrowing testimony and eloquent pleading will ever rid us of this scourge." --William F. Schulz, executive director, Amnesty International