{"product_id":"this-is-a-true-war-story-my-improbable-history-with-vietnam-9780226846880","title":"This Is a True War Story: My Improbable History with Vietnam","description":"\u003cb\u003eA personal account by a war historian and adoptee who discovers his biological father was a famous Marine combat photographer in Vietnam. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Robert K. Brigham has had a substantial career as a historian of the Vietnam War, with a hand in nine books, a documentary, public history projects, and more. While many a historian has felt compelled at some point to write about a subject close to them personally, Brigham did not think he was doing that. But, at age fifty-eight, Brigham, who had long known he was adopted, discovered that he'd improbably and unknowingly been studying and talking about his biological father for decades. That man, Bruce Atwell, was a Marine Corps photographer who took some of that war's most indelible and widely reproduced pictures. Brigham had used those images over and over again in decades' worth of classes and public lectures, never knowing the truth. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Both Brigham and Atwell were products of the American foster care and adoption system, and both were defined professionally by Vietnam. In a story shot through with echoes and shadows, Brigham not only reveals his own history as an adoptee but opens a startlingly fresh vantage on the fragility of American families; the power of social norms and taboos to shape lives; and the forces that inequitably disrupt families, not least of them war. The result is an accessible and moving book that is at once both a powerful personal story and an illuminating social critique. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Robert K. Brigham\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/05\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 264\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.20w x 0.80d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780226846880\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/01\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRobert K. Brigham\u003c\/b\u003e is the Shirley Ecker Boskey Professor of History and International Relations at Vassar College. He is the author or coauthor of ten books, among them \u003ci\u003eReckless: Henry Kissinger\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eand the Tragedy of Vietnam\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Robert K. Brigham \/ Hardcover \/ English","offer_id":48231953399965,"sku":"9780226846880","price":33.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/files\/img_87e287a2-b531-41e5-ba02-f63591e609db.jpg?v=1778578187","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/this-is-a-true-war-story-my-improbable-history-with-vietnam-9780226846880","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}