img

Acts of War

Richard Holmes

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

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.

  • Classification : Military History
  • Pub Date : JAN 1, 2007
  • Imprint : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
  • Page Extent : 448
  • Binding : PB
  • ISBN : 9780304367009
  • Price : INR 1,050
image

Richard Holmes

Professor Richard Holmes was one of the UK's leading military historians. As well as being the General Editor of the Oxford Companion to Military History, he presented several documentary series for the BBC. His books included The Napoleonic Wars Experience, as well as Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, Wellington: The Iron Duke and Red Coat. He died in 2011. IWM (Imperial War Museums) is a leading authority on conflict and its impact, from the First World War to the present. A family of five museums, IWM illustrates and records all aspects of modern war and of the individual's experience of it, whether allied or enemy, service or civilian, military or political, social or cultural.

Discover more books

To search by Publisher, Imprint, Category and Subject, please use Advanced Search