Elizabeth Becker

I thought the book was brutally honest about tourism and travel and kind of scary about where some nations are heading. The cities and historical treasures that are being destroyed due to tourism shocked me. I'll probably never go on a cruise after reading this not that I would have anyway.

I have just had my first 5 star read of the year! You Don't Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War by Elizabeth Becker is an amazing fast paced read. This is a great good fast paced work of nonfiction that reads like it is a novel. It is about three amazing women, Catherine Leroy, Frances Fitzgerald, and Kate Webb, who were journalists covering the war in Southeast Asia in the 1960's and 1970's. Each of the three have an amazing story. Cathy Leroy was French, Kate Webb from show more Australia, and Frances Fitzgerald was a scion of New York socialites. Each played a profound role in how the Vietnam War was covered as well as being the first women covering combat and allowed into combat zones with the full cooperation of the US military. These women set the standard and defined the role, and what a standard it turned out to be. Fitzgerald wrote some of the best books about the causes and problems of the American policy in Southeast Asia, and Webb was the first to cover Cambodia and predicted what would happen there. Leroy's pictures are some of the most lasting images of the war that are stuck in the public mind. This book makes me want to go read some of the books that they were reading when they were struggling with how to write the Vietnam War, as well as some of the books that they wrote. I am ashamed to say that I had never heard of these women or the role they played in history. Happily, this book has remedied that situation.

This is one for anybody who is interested in the history of Indochina, Cambodia, and the Vietnam War. Just in case you missed it - I highly recommend this one. It may be hard to find, but if all else fails there is always ILL. Use it to get this book. It isn't a big book, but it sure packs alot of history and action between its covers. show less

Despite initial promise of new look at under analyzed industry, arguments are predictable, even trite...at least to anyone interested enough in the subject to read this book. Structure suffers from chapters based on locations making it repetitive, disorganized in sometimes reading like travelogue rather than industry critique.

I can clearly see why this book wasn't rated higher in spite of tons of interesting information, relevant and enlightening statistics and a number of appropriate interviews and perspectives offered. The book is a curious cross between a thorough study of the industry and a travelogue, penned, at times, in a rather annoying style. I'm glad she interviewed all those people from all walks of tourist life, but I'd be thankful, if I could be left in the dark as per how she managed to obtain those show more interviews and how she and her husband traveled to such and such destination. Don't take me wrong - I enjoy travelogues, but I opened the book for what it promised to be, unequivocally printed on its cover. I got this, no doubts, but with it came this tiny caboose attached :) That's what draws down ratings for this otherwise much demanded snapshot of the industry and a source of unique information. show less