> Skip to content
  • Published: 19 September 2013
  • ISBN: 9780241968819
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 256

We Did Nothing

Why the truth doesn't always come out when the UN goes in



A hugely important and compelling book which received huge critical attention in trade paperback, absolutely perfect for the student market.

In recent years our newspapers and televisions have brought us stories of the failure of the UN to keep the peace in the modern world. How often have our journalists, our politicians and charity workers turned around and accused the UN of weakness in the face of violence? During the 1990s Polman visited UN peacekeeping missions in Somalia, Haiti and Rwanda to try to understand how resolutions are made and how the peace is lost. The result is this extraordinary, disturbing and utterly compelling book.

We Did Nothing shows what the resolutions mean for the people who must live in these battle fields, and for the UN soldiers who are sent to bring order to the terrifying chaos.

'A small classic of man's inhumanity to man'
Sunday Telegraph

  • Published: 19 September 2013
  • ISBN: 9780241968819
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 256

About the author

Linda Polman

Linda Polman studied at the Utrecht School of Journalism. For the last twenty years she has been a freelance journalist for Dutch radio, television and newspapers. Since the publication of her book in Holland, Polman has lectured to government , military and academic audiences throughout the region. An earlier translation of the full story of Kibeho was first published in Granta magazine. Polman currently divides her time between West Africa and Holland.

Also by Linda Polman

See all