Soldier

Told through the stories of the combatants themselves, this unique history of the soldier provides a penetrating insight into the politics, emotions and psychology of war and its aftermath.

Focusing primarily on the period from the Napoleonic Wars to the Global War on Terror, Darren Moore draws upon hundreds of narrative accounts of warfare written by soldiers from the UK, France, the USA, Canada, Japan, Italy, New Zealand, Russia, Australia, Israel and Germany, to tell their story from basic training to discharge or death.

From the mountains and plains of Spain where Wellingtons army battled the French, to the complex urban battlefield of Fallujah where US Marines engaged Iraqi insurgents in deadly house-to-house fighting, this book reveals the true face of war.

It draws on accounts from Timothy Gowing who took part in the storming of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, John O. Casler who fought alongside Stonewall Jackson during the American Civil War, Siegfried Knappe who took part in the desperate actions to stop the Russian Army entering Berlin in the closing stages of the Second World War and Lewis Puller Jr. who was horrifically wounded by a booby-trap in Vietnam, as well as contemporary accounts of British and American soldiers who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Darren Moore lets the soldiers own words reveal how they confront the possibility of being mutilated or killed; the mental and social conditioning that enables them to kill in battle; and the anguish of killing their comrades, whether through the death penalty or as a result of friendly fire. The book also examines the relationship between love, sex and war and reveals the trial by media faced by modern soldiers.