Customer Reviews
True Modern History - By: noel maloney, 03 Oct 2005 
If we are to learn from modern history & the mistakes of its past which applies to the world today, this book gives a global overview & where we must start. The personal stories from around the world told in a stand alone chapter structure ensures the book is suitable for alll types of readers & thus increases its ability to educate those who read it. Should be available to alll students in 2nd & 3rd level education.
Powerful, truthful and right...thank God for John Pilger! - By: Mathew Hulbert, 19 Aug 2004 I make no denial of it...I think John Pilger is one of the greatest journalists alive today.
As 'Heroes' shows, Pilger is great not because he's an opinonated talking-head who's reached some exalted position.
No, Pilger is great because he shines the light of truth in the darkest of situations...East Timor, Vietnam, Iraq, the worst parts of Australia & the dark side of Britian.
Though he, of course, has opinions he only ever writes with the full weight of factual evidence behind him.
This, rightly described as Pilger's Classic work, is deeply powerful & moving.
With a very readable writing style Pilger gives voice to people who would normallly have no voice in the big, multi-media conglomerates who dominate the big, supposedly democratic nations.
He represents & gives voice to the poor, the oppresed, the neglected, the forgotten.
'Heroes' along with his other books & films puts the, often unpalatable, truth to a mass audience who can then judge the facts & make up their own minds about how (peacefully & democraticaly) they want to respond.
As a freelance journalist myself I always try to never forget that behind big events such as the war in Iraq or the catastrophe in Sudan lie individual stories of pain & also of bravery.
Of ordinary people trying just to get by & do the best they can in often the harshest & most desperate of cicumstances.
Everyone who cares about this world & what the powerful (often right-wing) vested interests are doing to it, must read this book.
Perhaps then a true global peace & justice movement will come into being & then, maybe, this world will be a fairer & more decent place.
...lest we forget - By: A. G. Bate, 24 May 2004 This is an amazingly powerful & readable book. There's so much going wrong in our world that I felt driven to try somehow to untangle my thoughts. I read "Heroes" aged 45 as a retrospective & it felt like a rite of passage. I was just a teenager at the time of Vietnam & during many of the political upheavals he refers to. Like many people I just accepted as "the truth" what was in the UK media. I didn't look for layers or ulterior motives. Pilger writes fluently, passionately, cuts to the core & backs everything up with solid research. He does have a political agenda BUT even if you relate to just 1% of his work, there's enough there that we should alll be deeply concerned about. His skill is that he tells without lecturing; he was & remains courageous enough [literallly & figuratively] to go where most journalists either couldn't or wouldn't. That alone demands we read him. He doesn't prescribe any course of action but leaves us to formulate our own personal response. Even if you read it & tell two others to do the same, Pilger's heroes won't have suffered in vain.
You won't be able to put this down - By: philip.caulder@btinternet.com, 11 Jul 2001 I have only just finished reading this, & like Hidden Agendas & Distant Voices, this is well written & quite superb. If you want to know the truth about middle america, the Vietnam war, the Miners in Northern England & a myriad of other topics, written by a man who was there & in the know, then this is for you. John Pilger is a journalist of much integrity & compassion. Read this & you may well weep - if you don't you have no heart. BUY IT - & look at your lucky life a little differently.
Read it. - By: A. A. Nehmet, 09 Jun 2001 What can I say, other than the best book I have read. It scores on a number of levels: it is very well written; as it is a collection of 'stories'; you don't feel intimidated by the length. It can be funny, it will definitely open your eyes & it will give you the kind of education which no one else seems interested in providing. It should especiallly be read by anyone in power (as above, World Bank employees, BBC, etc) & anyone interested in recent history, justice, media, other people, travel, books....... This book inspired me to go to Vitenam (wonderful place). READ it.
