Acts of War: The Behaviour of Men in Battle - Hardcover

Holmes, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 029784668X ISBN 13: 9780297846680

Publisher: Orion, 2003

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

... a powerful, thought-provoking picture of how the conditions of war affect a man. His sources are several centuries of warfare and the personal recollections of veterans of conflicts across the world. Holmes presents the results of his ambitious and exhaustive research in a very readable form, carefully balancing fact and emotion, detachment and compassion which adds considerable depth to the wisdom expressed. (ARMOUR (Nov/Dec '03))

Mr Holmes makes a convincing case that the human being remains the central weapon of military conflict, technology notwithstanding. What emerges is a compelling and very human portrait of war. (THE ECONOMIST (21/2/04))

Book Description:

The reality of what it is to be a soldier, by Britain's foremost military historian

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 029784668X
• ISBN 13: 9780297846680
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 448