Frances FitzGerald Books

Sensitively examines the American intervention in Vietnam against its Vietnamese historical setting.

FitzGerald's polemic analysis argues that contemporary texts reflect current social quarrels, frequently distorting history into propaganda

At twenty-four, Dang Thuy Tram volunteered as a doctor in a Viet Cong battlefield hospital in Quang Ngai Province. Two years later, she was killed by American forces near her post. Her diary, written between 1968 and 1970, reveals her deep devotion to family and friends, the horrors of war, her longing for her high school sweetheart, and her commitment to her country. The entries are at times raw and at others lyrical, expressing her dignity and compassion amidst the relentless chaos of war. After her death, an American officer discovered her diary while following orders to destroy documents without military value. Just as he was about to burn it, his Vietnamese translator urged him to save it, noting it already contained "fire." The officer defied regulations, preserving the diary for thirty-five years. In 2005, a copy reached Dr. Tram’s elderly mother in Hanoi, leading to its publication in Vietnam and sparking national interest. This poignant account offers a vivid and personal perspective on the struggles faced by previous generations during the war. Translated by Andrew X. Pham and introduced by Pulitzer Prize winner Frances FitzGerald, it is a powerful testament to hope and the fragility of human life, told from the viewpoint of an adversary yet resonating universally.

"We must consider that we shall be a City Upon a Hill, the eyes of all people upon us," John Winthrop told his Pilgrim community crossing the Atlantic to found the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Four centuries later, Americans are still building such cities. In Cities on a Hill Pulitzer Prize-winner Frances FitzGerald explores this often eccentric, sometimes prophetic inclination in America. With characteristic wit and insight she examines four radically different communities: a fundamentalist church, a guru-inspired commune, a Sunbelt retirement city, and a gay activist community. All embody a visionary drive to shake off the past and build anew. Each regards itself as an exemplar of a new consciousness, or a new way of living, or both. FitzGerald here gives eloquent voice and definition to a quintessentially American impulse. It is a resonant work of literary imagination and journalistic precision.