An Intimate History of Killing: Face-to-Face Killing in Twentieth-Century Warfare

It is almost universally accepted among writers on warfare that battle is a terrible experience, and that those who fight are at the very least sobered, and often deeply traumatised, by the horrors of combat. In this volume, the author uses the letters, diaries, memoirs and reports of British, American, and Australian veterans from three conflicts – the First World War, the Second World War and the Vietnam War – to establish a picture of the man-at-arms. She suggests that the structure of war encourages pleasure in killing, and that perfectly ordinary, gentle human beings can become enthusiastic killers without becoming "brutalized."