Mini Review: ‘Siege’

Back when I taught college, my academic focus was journalism and trauma. How do we improve coverage of traumatic events – from war to traffic accidents – while giving reporters tools to become more resilient and avoid re-traumatizing survivors?

I owe my interest in this field to Chris Cramer, one of 26 people taken hostage in the 1980 takeover of Iran’s embassy in London that is recounted in “The Siege,” by Ben Macintyre.

The event left Cramer, then a BBC producer, with PTSD but also turned him into an international champion for distressed journalists. He was my boss at CNN International.

Macintyre draws on witness accounts, official reports, and copious media coverage to build an exhilarating, hour-by-hour account of the six-day siege and the military operation that ended it.

And he pays special attention to how participants react when things spiral out of control, noting: This book offers just one universal truth: no one knows how they will respond to lethal jeopardy, until they have to.