Warriors

Warriors: Portraits from the Battlefield

Heroism in battle has been celebrated throughout history, yet it is one of the least understood virtues. What makes some men and women perform extraordinary deeds on the battlefield? What makes them risk their lives in the pursuit of victory?Max Hastings, one of our foremost military historians, has seen combat up close and written about it for decades. In Warriors, he brings us the experiences of fourteen soldiers who fought in the wars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From an exuberant cavalry officer in Napoleon’s army to an abused orphan who in World War II became America’s youngest general since Custer, to an Israeli officer who recovered from a devastating injury to save his country, each portrait depicts a unique and remarkable story. A tribute to soldierly valor and a deeply insightful study of combat, this is an essential book for anyone who wishes to understand what it means to be at war.
"This is an old-fashioned book, or at least a book about old-fashioned conflicts, because it concerns people rather than “platforms,” that unloveable contemporary synonym for tanks, ships, planes. It addresses the experience of some remarkable characters variously American, British, Australian, French, German who made their marks upon the wars of the past two centuries. Like the rest of us, they are a mix of good, bad, ugly,
charming and disagreeable. This study will be of no interest to such modern warlords as U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, because it addresses aspects of conflict they do not comprehend, creatures of flesh and blood rather than systems of steel and electronics. As Admiral Daniel V. Gallery observed about an earlier defense secretary back in 1965: “I doubt if Mr.
McNamara and his crew have any morale settings on their computers.”