num_pages: 500
description: Frances FitzGerald's landmark history of Vietnam and the Vietnam War, "a compassionate and penetrating account of the collision of two societies that remain untranslatable to one another." ( New York Times Book Review )This magisterial work, based on Frances FitzGerald's many years of research and travels, takes us inside the history of Vietnam -- the traditional, ancestor-worshiping villages, the conflicts between Communists and anti-Communists, Catholics and Buddhists, generals and monks, the disruption created by French colonialism, and America's ill-fated intervention -- and reveals the country as seen through Vietnamese eyes. Originally published in 1972,  Fire in the Lake  was the first history of Vietnam written by an American and won the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the National Book Award. With a clarity and insight unrivaled by any author before it or since, Frances FitzGerald illustrates how America utterly and tragically misinterpreted the realities of Vietnam.
language: English
title: Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam
titlecomplete: Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam
genres: 20th Century, Military History, History, Politics, American History, Historical, War, Asia, Nonfiction, Military Fiction
ratings_count: 2259
awards: awardedAt: 94723200000
name: Pulitzer Prize
category: General Nonfiction, awardedAt: 94723200000
name: National Book Award
category: Contemporary Affairs, awardedAt: 94723200000
name: Bancroft Prize, name: Front Page Award
publisher: Back Bay Books