David Holdridge

After being hauled out of a Vietnamese rice paddy in 1969 and then spending months in various neuropsychiatric wards in the United States, David Holdridge evolved to become a stalwart in the promotion of the American narrative overseas. As such, the author witnessed that "business" grow from a rather lonely pursuit to the global industry it is today, most commonly known in the West as "Overseas Relief and Development." The Avant Garde of Western Civ is the story of one "foot soldier" and his family as they sought to provide salve and transformation within the aftermath of the Iraq invasion in 2003. This memoir explores how difficult and often complicit "giving" can be.

Editorial reviews

"Many works describe humanitarian assistance and aid from a general and theoretical perspective, but what does it feel like to a practitioner? David Holdridge describes aid from the ground up, a different and fascinating perspective."

Joseph S. Nye, University Distinguished Service Professor and former dean, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

"David and his team in the Shia heartland of Iraq represented the best values and hopes of his country as he remained indefatigable over his seven years there, outside of any perimeter, in pursuit of leaving some lasting good behind within the larger Iraqi context of dismay and disintegration."

Christopher Shays, former member of Congress for Connecticut's 4th District

"In my name and on behalf of the community of al Hayy in Wasit Governorate, Iraq, we are praising the extraordinary efforts made by the humanitarian organization as led by its Director, Mr. David Holdridge and his Iraqi staff who provided such exceptional services in the province from 2003 to 2010."

Sayed Sa'ad Mehdi, religious cleric

"Pulls no punches in taking on the charity industry and foreign policy pundits. For over four decades, he and his family have experienced fully the social and political realities of the world's conflict zones, natural disasters, famines and crises. Starting as a young infantry lieutenant who was gut shot in Vietnam, he has since taken on countless missions as a humanitarian aid worker into hotspots such as Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Gaza and Haiti. This foot soldier's evocative story, in equal parts, exposes a flawed approach to soft power and expands our understanding of 'right relations.'"

Phil Karber, travel writer, author of Postmarks from a Political Traveler

A severely wounded veteran of Vietnam is released from an army hospital to apparently live the rest of his days in the cellar of his parents' home. In a somewhat miraculous recovery, he finally ventures forth to Africa as an American vagabond, eventually returning home to seek a fortune in the marketplace. Instead the fury of his pursuit drives him to unsustainable ends and into the refuge of an exceptional woman. Together they break the ties that bind and escape to the war in Lebanon. There they make a marriage that plummets and ascends according to the shifting war and to their own troubled convictions toward each other, against the backdrop of the Israeli invasion of a Lebanon already shredded by internal strife.

The book attempts to weave the inherent uncertainties of a daring love affair, the presumptions of the American experiment and the fallacies of Charity amidst the chaos of a Lebanon at war. Variously, it mixes "death at its doorstep," the essential confusion about "developing the benighted," the adventure of "close calls" and adventures at sea, the birth of a silver-haired "habibi" and finally the interminable search for loveliness: the crow on his shoulder in flight for a precious moment.

Editorial reviews

"A brilliant, moving, globe-hopping memoir, The Water Above bravely chronicles the journey of a man who is trying to make sense of America's role in the world, raise a family and lend aid to the victims of the violent civil war in Lebanon, all at the same time. What he meets along the way, in Vietnam, Connecticut, Lebanon and in the offices of relief agencies throughout the Middle East, is intense, frustrating, heart-wrenching, and inspiring. And makes for a rich and rollicking read that reminds me of a modern-day Candide by Voltaire with echoes of the film The Year of Living Dangerously."

Ralph Pezzullo, author of Jawbreaker, Zero Footprint and Saigon, and host of the podcast Heroes Behind Headlines

"David Holdridge writes with a gritty realism that sometimes feels like a punch in the gut. You don't so much read about his characters as you experience them as they seek love, adventure, danger and meaning in an always perilous post-World War II world. His are not imagined or armchair descriptions of survival in the war-torn Middle East or being blown up in combat. He's been there, and he brings you along with him with gripping prose."

W. E. "Bill" Barnes, former political editor and columnist, San Francisco Examiner, and contributing editor, Time

"Serving both in combat and in humanitarian roles, he has volunteered to be in some of the most hazardous places on earth, yet he has managed to maintain both his humanity and his humility. I met David when he was serving in the chaos of a crumbling Iraq, struggling each day to help civilians caught in the middle and risking his life on a daily basis to do so. Those who have engaged in service, as well as those who might not be able to imagine what that life is like, will gain insights and perhaps inspiration from David's personal example and writings."

Brian Baird, member of the U.S. House of Representatives for twelve years and founder of the National Museum and Center for Service

"An irresistible tale of war, love, devotion and madness and the moral quagmires of Imperialism and International Aid. A story of recuperative wanderings after Vietnam and work overseas, his personal, familial and political agonies are powerfully rendered and triumphs hard won. Our grand narratives, thought to be over, are brought back to life through David's voice."

Virginia Konchan, poet and short-story writer, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The New Republic

Charity Overseas is the story of the peregrinations of a wounded American soldier and the lens through which he sees America as a unique post-World War II phenomenon, replete with its hard and soft power, now in 2026 teetering on the verge of disgrace as the promises made by John Kennedy in 1961 for a global revival of international justice and peace are seen, often, as hollow and corrupted, both overseas and at home.

Two American army veterans, David Holdridge, writing as Michael Rutherford (Vietnam), and Lawrence Pezzullo (Operation Torch, North Africa), become fast friends in an effort to reduce a global dependency on American largesse in favor of expanding investment in self-empowerment within foreign countries and their communities; to move away from the anodyne patronage of the hegemon and respect the constant cry of the benighted overseas, "nothing about us without us"; and to expose Big Charity in America as another aspect of raw-boned capitalism, in which much of what citizens donate is intercepted by compromised intermediaries, the Beltway Bandits, and too often never fully reaches the destitute overseas, or is converted into American leverage in bilateral security negotiations.

The book tracks the efforts of Pezzullo, the new CEO of Catholic Relief Services, and his lieutenant, Rutherford, to cut the rot away, country by country, across the Levant, the Maghreb, West Africa and Asia, while Rutherford's righteousness and yen for battle compete daily with his compassion for those closest to him on his global treks: his wife and two children.

It ends in a preordained defeat: Rutherford's at the hands of a Church no longer owned by the narrative of Jesus Christ, and Pezzullo's at the hands of those who objected to his rough handling of the apostates who sought the comforts of office.

Editorial reviews

"He knows the world and its wiles but also its beauty and goodness. Above all, he knows himself. All of that makes him a singularly expert guide to the fraught but fascinating world of international aid and development."

Richard Schoch, professor, School of Arts, English, and Languages, Queen's University Belfast

"A story that will call into question everything you thought you understood about charity overseas and those who implemented it. The author writes with a passion and a grace that rings authentic because he lived it like few others. In time this work will be described as a seminal penetration of the overseas charity industry."

Frank Carlin, 37 years in the overseas charity industry, 28 of them in the world's flash points

"This book is full of heroes and fools at every turn, provides fascinating historical, religious, and philosophical references that give context to his experiences and insights, and tells many hard truths about balancing work and family when one's mission in life is to serve the greater good of the world."

Jennifer Wood Oldham, 15 years supporting programs in Indonesia, Macedonia, Albania, Congo and Ghana