Overview

This ambitious, wide-ranging, exhaustively researched book is a compelling attempt to grasp the very nature of war. It takes us through the soldier's experience in its entirety - from the humiliation of basic training and the intense comradeship of army life, to the terror, isolation and exhaustion of battle. What does it feel like to be in the firing line? How does killing change a man? And what do the extreme conditions of war reveal about a man's basic instincts, his courage or his fear, his urge for self-preservation or self-sacrifice? Covering several centuries of warfare, and including the personal recollections of veterans from two World Wars, from Korea, Vietnam, the Falklands and the Arab-Israeli conflicts, Richard Holmes gives us a powerful picture of what motivates the soldier and enables him to maintain the struggle in conditions of extreme degradation and danger.

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9780304367009

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Reviews

A welcome post-9/11 update of a book first published in 1985, telling what it is like for the ordinary soldier at times of war. Militiary historian Holmes gets behind the grand strategies, preferring to focus on the led rather than the leaders and on the human element rather than the technology. Fear plays a major part in most soldiers' experiences on the battlefield, and when that is coupled with hunger or lack of sleep, the level of personal suffering cannot be overstated. Holmes covers the entire gamut of war, from the call-up and indignities of basic training to the moment of having to decide whether to kill or be killed. He ranges over several centuries of battle and uses firsthand accounts from those who took part in both world wars as well as the Falklands, Vietnam and the Arab-Israeli conflicts. The book's black-and-white photographs are in some cases not for the squeamish. This is war with a real human face. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Richard Holmes is the author of numerous books including The Firing Line, Soldiers and Riding The Retreat, published both in the UK and in North America. He is the author and presenter of the BBC War Walks series and their accompanying books. His latest television series for the BBC and the History Channel is The Western Front, also accompanied by a bestselling book. Richard Holmes is Professor of Military and Security Studies Cranfield University and the Royal College of Military Science, Schrivenham and Britain's senior serving reserve officer.

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