Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-214) and index.

Background on Tim O'Brien : The life of Tim O'Brien / Vietnam War Reference Library ; Civilians do not understand war / Tim O'Brien ; O'Brien is more than just a Vietnam War writer / Don Lee ; Applying Vietnam's lessons to the Iraq War / Tim O'Brien , as told to Patrick Hicks -- War in The things they carried : O'Brien makes his peace with wat / Robert R. Harris ; The things they carried depicts the moral complexity of war / Marilyn Wesley ; The things they carried contains fictitious truths / Steven Kaplan ; O'Brien blurs the line between fact and fiction / Don Ringnalda ; The things they carried is a war story about writing war stories / Catherine Calloway ; O'Brien uses storytelling to ease the trauma of war / Mark Heberle ; O'Brien writes his way to spiritual redemption / Alex Vernon ; Tim O'Brien struggles with guilt over the war / Tobey C. Herzog ; The things they carried presents a complicated view of gender / Susan Farrell ; "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" redefines women's role in war / Katherine Kinney ; Homer's Iliad provides insights into O'Brien's The things they carried / Christopher Michael McDonough ; True war stories have no easy answers / Milton J. Bates ; O'Brien offers no resolution at the conclusion of his book / Robin Blyn -- Contemporary perspectives on war ; We must not repeat the mistakes we made in Vietnam / Robert J. Bresler ; The Vietnam and Iraq Wars are indefensible / John Pilger ; The Vietnam War is still with us / Peter Edidin ; Selective conscientious objection to war should be legalized / Gregory D. Foster ; Soldiers can fall in love with war / Daniel Stone ; We must do more to help veterans with PTSD / Michael M. Faenza.