Bulletproof Vest

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Pub Date 16 Apr 2020 | Archive Date 16 May 2020

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Description

"Nothing's bulletproof," the salesman said. "The thing's only bullet resistant." The New York Times journalist Kenneth R. Rosen had just purchased his first bulletproof vest and was headed off on assignment. He was travelling into Mosul, Iraq, when he realized that the idea of a bulletproof vest is more effective than the vest itself. From its very inception, poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide, or Kevlar, was meant for tires. Its humble roots and mundane applications are often lost, as it is now synonymous with body armor, war zones, and domestic terrorism.

What Rosen learned through intimate use of his vest was that it acts as a metaphor for all the precautions we take toward digital, physical, and social security. Bulletproof Vest is at once an introspective journey into the properties and precisions of a bulletproof vest on a molecular level and on the world stage. It's also an ode to living precariously, an open letter that defends the notion that life is worth the risk.

A portion of the author's proceeds will be donated to RISC, a nonprofit that provides emergency medical training to freelance conflict journalists. For more information, go to www.risctraining.org.

"Nothing's bulletproof," the salesman said. "The thing's only bullet resistant." The New York Times journalist Kenneth R. Rosen had just purchased his first bulletproof vest and was headed off on...


Advance Praise

"A compelling, thoughtful dive into the pursuit of being bulletproof. " - Kirkus Reviews

"A compelling, thoughtful dive into the pursuit of being bulletproof. " - Kirkus Reviews


Available Editions

ISBN 9781501353024
PRICE $14.95 (USD)

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Average rating from 9 members


Featured Reviews

This is one of the most thoughtful and haunting of the books in this unexpectedly marvellous series: Rosen takes his bulletproof vest as a starting point but really this is a meditation on danger and self-protection, and where the latter might inhibit rather than preserve life. The most pressing chapters are where he writes of his trips to war zones of the recent Middle East as a NYT journalist. In between, there are some brief histories of shields and weapons, of the formation of kevlar, but these interrupt the real substance of the book. Honest and intimate, this is surprisingly introspective.

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