In the grand tradition of John Keegan\'s enduring classic The Face of Battle comes a searing, unforgettable chronicle of war through the eyes of the American soldiers who fought in three of our most iconic battles: Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, and Iwo Jima.
Men of War is.
This is indeed war up-close, as those who fought it lived it--and survived it if they could. . . strikingly vivid, well-observed, and compulsively readable."--The Daily Beast "Military history at its best . . .
Praise for Men of War "A tour de force .
As such, the book makes a critical contribution to military history by narrowing the colossal gulf between the popular understanding of wars and the experiences of the soldiers who fight them.
To an unprecedented degree, Men of War brings home the reality of Combat and, just as important, its aftermath in the form of the psychological and medical effects on veterans.
As Rose demonstrates, the most important factor in any battle is the human one: At Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, and Iwo Jima, the American soldier, as much as any general, proved decisive.
Finally, he shows how in 1945 the Marine Corps hurled itself with the greatest possible violence at the island of Iwo Jima, where nearly a third of all Marines killed in World War II would die.
Then, focusing on Gettysburg, Rose describes a typical Civil War infantry action, vividly explaining what Union and Confederate soldiers experienced before, during, and after combat.
Drawing on an immense range of firsthand sources from the battlefield, Alexander Rose begins by re-creating the lost and alien world of eighteenth-century warfare at Bunker Hill, the bloodiest clash of the War of Independence--and reveals why the American militiamen were so lethally effective against the oncoming waves of British troops.
Men of War is instead a riveting, visceral, and astonishingly original look at ordinary soldiers under fire.
This is not a book about how great generals won their battles, nor is it a study in grand strategy.
In the grand tradition of John Keegan\'s enduring classic The Face of Battle comes a searing, unforgettable chronicle of war through the eyes of the American soldiers who fought in three of our most iconic battles: Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, and Iwo Jima
