This book is already a model in its kind, and centres on war journalism. It is mentioned in the bibliography of any current manual of history of the journalism, which indicates the importance and scholarship of this work.The title, rather enigmatic, refers to the famous phrase of Senator Hiram Johnson (1917): "The first casualty when war comes is truth". So, Philip Knightley shows how the mass media have been manipulated and subordinated to the interests of war, in any time, from Crimea to the war of Iraq. The consequence is, naturally, that the truth turns out to be "the first casualty" of any war...As a mere reader, I recommend this book to all interested in mass communications, and military history. They will find in it a very original setting, in an accesible english, with a pace that does not decline ever, and supports the reader's interest from the first to the last page.In addition, -and this is an advantage of importance- Phillip Knightley is an australian journalist and scholar who crosses the limits of american self-reference, thus covering the work of many other war correspondents, british, australians, canadians, newzealanders, and occasionally french ones (as in chapter 15), or italians (as treating the ethiopian conquest by Mussolini's armies, in chapter 8).In short, a book that allows the history lover to refresh the warlike events of the last 150 years, seeing them from a new and "journalistic" perspective.