At his best, legendary nonfiction writer John McPhee is a wonderfully detailed observer of life's intriguing elements, both big and small. He's very much in this element with this account of the eccentricities and strengths of Switzerland's informal militia.

The book grew out of McPhee spending a couple months imbedded with ordinary Swiss men from all walks of life, as they did their annual military training. It's packed full of funny and likable eyewitness details about mock-exercises to storm enemy helicopters, followed by very nice pate and cheese lunches in the mountains. Loved the sections where McPhee writes sympathetically about the bankers, farmers and dental supply salesmen during their militia drills in the mountains.

That said, some 1980s anecdotes feel very dated. And the book was built as an extended version of a long-ago New Yorker article. So there are stretches where he makes the same basic points 50 pages apart, emptying out every page of his notes to reach full book length.

its fascinating!

This is the first book I've read by Mr. McPhee, and I really enjoyed it. The author started out as a journalist and a lot of his pieces originally appeared in "The New Yorker." This background is apparent in the way he writes. He picks an unusual topic, or at least he looks at something from an unusual angle, and he is very economic with his words. This is not a criticism. You don't feel that you are being "shortchanged." Being linquistically economic allows Mr. McPhee to cram an awful lot of interesting information into a short book, in this case just 150 pages. We learn a lot about the workings of the Swiss Army and how it permeates the entire society. We get insight into the Swiss mentality and their philosophy of "neutrality." We also get a little history.....both concerning WWII and going back further, back to the days of the Swiss mercenaries. The famous Swiss precision even comes into play in the construction of bomb shelters: "....the Swiss started building one-bar (i.e.-being able to withstand a certain amount of pressure caused by an explosion) shelters to protect the extremely high percentage of the population that might survive explosions but without the shelter would be destroyed like the citizens of Hamburg and Dresden. Swiss calculations showed that something as thick as, say, a ten-bar shelter would be of negligible extra value, for the increased area of protection would be slight rather than proportional; for underground hospitals and command posts, three-bar construction was chosen." And even though Mr. McPhee is never wasteful with words, this doesn't stop him from occasionally inserting his dry sense of humor. Regarding the Swiss propensity for planning for all contingencies, and not being caught with their pants down, the author writes: "It would be very un-Swiss to wake up tomorrow to yesterday's threat and then attempt to do something about it. If Pearl Harbor had somehow been in Switzerland, a great deal of Japanese aluminum would be scattered all over the Alps." Now that I've dipped my toe in the water, I'm looking forward to reading a lot more by Mr. McPhee!

I came to "Place de la Concorde de la Suisse" after having read an article about Disaster Preparedness, so the great surprise for me was that this topic was being handled by such a wonderful and witty prose stylist, like John McPhee.  McPhee writes with such precision and detail about the Alpine terrain that this book will appeal to naturalists, with such wit that it will appeal to the general reader, and with such attention to dialogue that it will appeal to those interested in the Swiss Way of Disaster Preparedness.  For, McPhee creates characters, such as Luc Massy, who give voice to the fact that Disaster Preparedness has become a mainstream element of Swiss life, as Swiss as fondue, sweet wine, and an Alpine meadow.
Between discussions of the everyday life of Swiss men engaged in the Swiss Army either as short-term duty or lifelong calling, McPhee weaves in discussions about WWII plans for a Nazi invasion, or, more appropriately today, invasion by a foreign enemy or the explosion of a nuclear bomb.  Still, demonstrating that neutrality is not the result of inaction, but the result of choice, the tone of the book becomes serious at times - especially when discussing the fact that the Swiss are ready to blow up any bridge or any mountain tunnel or even the city of Basel -- but does not deviate into heavyhanded visions of apocalypse that might be considered poor taste at any apres ski dinner table.
If Disaster Preparedness - in this time of earthquakes, tsunamis, and terrorist threats - will ever become mainstream in America, it must be handled lightheartedly in the Swiss Way...except, perhaps, it should come up not in hushed whispers, but during the rowdiness of a tailgate party, amid beer, hot dogs, and casual friends.  This is a book that can be recommended to everyone.

John Mc Phee a parfaitement décrit la relation Suisse et son Armée, c'est bien imagé et se lit facilement à lire