In Fighting and Writing Luise White brings the force of her historical insight to bear on the many war memoirs published by white soldiers who fought for Rhodesia during the 1964–1979 Zimbabwean liberation struggle. In the memoirs of white soldiers fighting to defend white minority rule in Africa long after other countries were independent, White finds a robust and contentious conversation about race, difference, and the war itself. These are writings by men who were ambivalent conscripts, generally aware of the futility of their fight—not brutal pawns flawlessly executing the orders and parroting the rhetoric of a racist regime. Moreover, most of these men insisted that the most important aspects of fighting a guerrilla war—tracking and hunting, knowledge of the land and of the ways of African society—were learned from black playmates in idealized rural childhoods. In these memoirs, African guerrillas never lost their association with the wild, even as white soldiers boasted of bringing Africans into the intimate spaces of regiment and regime.

"“Fighting and Writing offers an often-harrowing look into the hearts and minds of the men who fought in the struggle for Rhodesia. With her unique combination of fearlessness and provocation, Luise White asks whether war is always about killing and whether killing is the most significant thing about war. She asks us to stare hard at these discomfiting questions, giving a whole new meaning to the history of war stories.”" - The Trouble with Empire: Challenges to Modern British Imperialism

"“Luise White is that scholar of rare analytic and literary ability who can tell history's most sensational stories differently: prostitution, vampire rumors, and now, in Fighting and Writing, the memoirs of white soldiers in a racist war. These are the unlikely starting points from which White leads her readers through histories that become more rich and more relevant with every page.”" - The War Machines: Young Men and Violence in Sierra Leone and Liberia

"Luise White has produced a powerful, provocative, novel work that contains enthralling literary and historiographical analysis. This book is not only original but is also very interesting. . . . It will appeal to those interested in the history of Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation, and I think it would also function very well as a set text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, particularly those working on contested histories, warfare in post-Second World War Africa, and literary representations of modern conflict." - Journal of Southern African Studies

"Fighting and Writing offers a new angle on the complexity of the Rhodesian/Zimbabwean war through the memoirs of white soldiers. The book is a great resource for those interested in Rhodesian and Zimbabwean history and for military historians." - African Studies Quarterly

"This book should rattle comfortable stories of race in Rhodesia, and that is to the good." - American Historical Review

""Fighting and Writing is a powerfully and uniquely written piece of work that successfully and practically helps to answer old questions about the writing and study of history. Both broadly and in very concrete ways it helps us rethink the production and purpose of history. The book explores seemingly disparate but neatly woven themes about the so-called bush war, production of historical knowledge, authorship in history, and perceptions about war."" - Journal of African History

"White provides a highly stimulating analysis and given the nature of its source material and subject matter, her work will be useful for those studying Rhodesia’s civil war specifically, and counterinsurgency more generally, as well those researching in the field of memory studies and in the use of memoirs in historical research." - Journal of African Military History