Title: Psychology of Men in COMBAT
Product review: This book's subtitle, "The Behavior of Men in Battle", is a misnomer, for it is really a wide-ranging and lengthy description of what happens to men from the time they are recruited until they are discharged as combat veterans. Holmes draws from interviews, written accounts, memoirs, psychological studies, and other varied sources to examine the experiences of the individual soldier. He discusses items as central to his subject as training, motivation, and casualties to those as remote as rituals, use of alcohol, and "Dear John" letters. The book is perhaps too focused on the Anglo-American experience, and ideas are often presented uncritically. Yet the scarcity of works covering war and military life from the individual perspective will make this one worthwhile for some time.
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