Very good. ( )

When an English friend here in Geneva said he buys up all the copies of this he can find, I broke the habit of a lifetime and asked if I could borrow it. I'd recently been discovering the ferocious history of the Swiss Army which I guess is one of the factors that still has its influence. Another is that the people are the army, the army the people. Eye-opening for me - though I guess it is blindingly obvious if I'd ever stopped to think - is that neutrality isn't a moral position, it's a function of possibility, at least in the Swiss case. Both the people and the landscape of Switzerland bristle with what is needed to defend neutrality. I knew that modern buildings here are all built with nuclear bomb shelters, but I had no idea how much of the countryside has massive support structures and escape mechanisms underground, including hospitals. I had no idea that it is common for mountains in Switzerland to be effectively hollow inside, with plastic granite blocks fitted into the sides of mountains, camouflaged entries into these secret areas.

Rest here:

http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/la-place-de-la-concorde-su...

un acuto giornalista americano ha scritto questo spassosissimo saggio dal quale si capisce perchè la svizzera è la svizzera. ( )

If there is one theme that is constant throughout the geographically and thematically varied output of the great writer John McPhee, it is the challenges of humanity in the face of a nature. Sure, war is about countries and its people battling other countries and people, but nature still exists and has a large impact on war. In the case of this exploration of Switerzland's neutrality, which takes the form of a defense system that permeates the whole country, physically and socially, the military has had to overcome the country's mountainous geography while using it to its advantage in any potential attacks. In McPhee's hands, the fact that male citizens of a certain age must serve in the army, making it 650,000-strong at the time of his writing, means that the book is as much about the Swiss people as it is about its military. Like any McPhee book, it is endlessly fascinating. ( )

My reactions upon reading this book in 1991.

A fascinating book that gives lie to the liberal view that preparing for war and defense at a momen'ts notice is futile, provocative (in the civil defense context of nuclear war), and engendering of a violent society. The Swiss have not fought a war (apart from civil war) with the outside for almost 500 years, have deterred aggression against them in WWII, and are generally peaceful.

McPhee does a spendid job at briefly, anecdotally showing the contradictions of the Swiss army: often seemingly undisciplined, insubordinate but dedicated to defending their country; casual, part-time soldiers exquisitely trained, utterly serious when necessary; fierce, but peaceful and calm. McPhee shows how the Swiss dedication to freedom leads them to take their Army seriously and make exquisite, complete, intricate preparations for a war they resolutely hope not to fight.

McPhee does a nice job of interspersing the modern Swiss with tales of their past -- particularly their days as the best troops in Europe and their activiites in WWII, and he shows how dedicated the Swiss are to their Army and the peculiar character of a society that has no army, but is an army. It's an ideal like Sparta's, but the Swiss have created a much more congenial society. ( )