This crackling survey of military might from ancient Egypt to the modern era spotlights frontline foot soldiers and their weapons, uniforms, tactics, and training. 250 black-and-white illustrations.
WARS CHANGE, WARRIORS DON'T We are all warriors. Each of us struggles every day to define and defend our sense of purpose and integrity, to justify our existence on the planet and to understand, if only within our own hearts, who we are and what we believe in. Do we fight by a code? If so, what is it? What is the Warrior Ethos? Where did it come from? What form does it take today? How do we (and how can we) use it and be true to it in our internal and external lives? The Warrior Ethos is intended not only for men and women in uniform, but artists, entrepreneurs and other warriors in other walks of life. The book examines the evolution of the warrior code of honor and "mental toughness." It goes back to the ancient Spartans and Athenians, to Caesar's Romans, Alexander's Macedonians and the Persians of Cyrus the Great (not excluding the Garden of Eden and the primitive hunting band). Sources include Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, Xenophon, Vegetius, Arrian and Curtius--and on down to Gen. George Patton, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and Israeli Minister of Defense, Moshe Dayan.
A dramatic portrait of the innovative Special Forces commanders and FBI agents who wage war against America's hidden enemies With the planned withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the longest conflicts in our nation's history were supposed to end. Yet we remain at war against expanding terrorist movements, and our security forces have had to continually adapt to a nihilistic foe that operates in the shadows. The result of fifteen years of reporting, Twilight Warriors is the untold story of the tight-knit brotherhood that changed the way America fights. James Kitfield reveals how brilliant innovators in the US military, Special Forces, and the intelligence and law enforcement communities forged close operational bonds in the crucibles of Iraq and Afghanistan, breaking down institutional barriers to create a relentless, intelligence-driven style of operations. At the forefront of this profound shift were Stanley McChrystal and his interagency team at Joint Special Operations Command, the pioneers behind a hybrid method of warfighting: find, fix, finish, exploit, and analyze. Other key figures include Michael Flynn, the visionary who redefined the intelligence gathering mission; the FBI's Brian McCauley, who used serial-killer profilers to track suicide bombers in Afghanistan; and the Delta Force commander Scott Miller, responsible for making team players out of the US military's most elite and secretive counterterrorism units. The result of their collaborations is a globe-spanning network that is elegant in its simplicity and terrifying in its lethality. As Kitfield argues, this style of operations represents our best hope for defending the nation in an age of asymmetric warfare. Twilight Warriors is an unprecedented account of the American way of war-and the iconoclasts who have brought it into the twenty-first century.
Images of war saturated American culture between the 1940s and the 1970s, as U.S. troops marched off to battle in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Exploring representations of servicemen in the popular press, government propaganda, museum exhibits, literature, film, and television, Andrew Huebner traces the evolution of a storied American icon--the combat soldier. Huebner challenges the pervasive assumption that Vietnam brought drastic changes in portrayals of the American warrior, with the jaded serviceman of the 1960s and 1970s shown in stark contrast to the patriotic citizen-soldier of World War II. In fact, Huebner shows, cracks began to appear in sentimental images of the military late in World War II and were particularly apparent during the Korean conflict. Journalists, filmmakers, novelists, and poets increasingly portrayed the steep costs of combat, depicting soldiers who were harmed rather than hardened by war, isolated from rather than supported by their military leadership and American society. Across all three wars, Huebner argues, the warrior image conveyed a growing cynicism about armed conflict, the federal government, and Cold War militarization.
Stoic Warriors explores the relationship between soldiers and Stoic philosophy, exploring what Stoicism actually is, the role it plays in the character of the military (both ancient and modern), and its powerful value as a philosophy of life. Marshalling anecdotes from military history--ranging from ancient Greek wars to World War II, Vietnam, and Iraq--Sherman illuminates the military mind and uses it as a window on the virtues of the Stoic philosophy. Indeed this is a perceptive investigation of what makes Stoicism so compelling not only as a guiding principle for the military, but as a philosophy for anyone facing the hardships of life.
As seen in military documents, medical journals, novels, films, television shows, and memoirs, soldiers’ invisible wounds are not innate cracks in individual psyches that break under the stress of war. Instead, the generation of weary warriors is caught up in wider social and political networks and institutions—families, activist groups, government bureaucracies, welfare state programs—mediated through a military hierarchy, psychiatry rooted in mind-body sciences, and various cultural constructs of masculinity. This book offers a history of military psychiatry from the American Civil War to the latest Afghanistan conflict. The authors trace the effects of power and knowledge in relation to the emotional and psychological trauma that shapes soldiers’ bodies, minds, and souls, developing an extensive account of the emergence, diagnosis, and treatment of soldiers’ invisible wounds.
What happens in a tradition that links citizenship with soldiering when women become citizens? Citizen Soldiers and Manly Warriors provides an in-depth analysis of the theory and practice of the citizen-soldier in historical context. Using a postmodern feminist lens, Snyder reveals that within the citizen-soldier tradition, citizenship and masculinity are simultaneously constituted through engagement in civic and martial practices.
Words for Warriors: A Professional Soldier's Notebook is about leadership-leadership on the battlefield and in the garrison. Colonel Ralph Puckett, a Ranger legend, shares what he has learned in more than fifty-eight years of training, leading, teaching, and mentoring Warriors. This book addresses tactics, training, administration, special staff, public relations, self-development, and myriad other subjects that are the responsibilities of commanders. Much of this advice will be useful to business leaders as well. The essays within are not limited to Colonel Puckett's experience. They draw heavily upon the experiences of others to provide a broad discussion of practical courses of action for the many challenges that confront leaders. This invaluable resource presents ideas that will help commanders with many of the problems that are part of everyday military life. Words for Warriors helps fill the gap between what is taught in our service schools and lessons learned through experience.
The beginning of the famous "Nine Days in May" battles of the 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam and the heroes who fought them. The early fire fights and battles of one of the most highly decorated battalions of the Vietnam War. Eyewitness accounts of boys become men as they recount the riveting events of fire fights, human wave attacks, hand-to-hand combat, overrun units, survivors, sacrifice, and four Medals of Honor.