Periscope

More than 2 million British and Commonwealth soldiers were injured during World War I because the trenches dug to protect them from powerful new weapons couldn't always shield their heads from sniper fire and shrapnel. Harold Gillies, a New Zealand-born surgeon posted in France, realized that horribly injured men would need years of care and argued for a special ward that would treat radical facial injuries. "Faces of Battle" chronicles the techniques that he and his staff pioneered, including the use of bone and cartilage to reconstruct faces.

Cosmetic surgery for today's soldiers can be a messy business, and it's often impossible to restore the faces of the badly disfigured. But "Faces of Battle" shows just how far surgical reconstructions have come.

—G.B.

Reality Check
The women presidents of South America have elicited praise for helping spread female leadership from Western Europe. But a World Economic Forum report on the "global gender gap" last week shows that countries that rank above parts of Europe in female "political empowerment" include South Asia, a longtime leader, Croatia, South Africa and El Salvador. And countries without high empowerment rankings have skyrocketing "educational attainment" rankings, suggesting more female presidents could be just around the corner.

— Adam B. Kushner

Renewable Optimism
Mariane Pearl, the wife of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, resolved to hold onto her sense of hope in the aftermath of her husband's murder by terrorists in 2002. She wrote a stirring memoir, "A Mighty Heart," later made into a film starring Angelina Jolie. Now she's back with "In Search of Hope," which features 12 profiles (originally written for Glamour magazine) of profoundly optimistic women—from a Moroccan cleaning lady in Paris to the president of Liberia. She spoke with NEWSWEEK's Tony Dokoupil:

Why did you start this project?
I wanted to show people that there is hope out there. It comes from the actions of individuals like the women in this book. You have suicide bombers who are ready to lose their lives to destroy, but there are also people who are ready to lose their lives to build. Finding those people—that was my quest. It was personal and professional.

What made it personal?
For my son's sake, I really needed to answer the question: Can we spread hope the way others spread fear? What are our assets to do that? To me, it's these people.