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

by JoannaBourke (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $7.54

  It is almost universally accepted among writers on warfare that battle is a terrible experience, and that men who fight are at the very least sobered, and often deeply traumatized, by the horrors of combat. Bourke uses the letters, diaries, memoirs and reports of veterans from three conflicts - World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War - to establish a picture of the man-at-arms. What she suggests is that the structure of war encourages pleasure in killing, and that perfectly ordinary, gentle human beings can become enthusiastic killes without becoming brutalized . Bourke forces the reader to face some disconcerting truths about society that can so easliy organize itself for war.

• Used

  Paperback
  1999

  $20.33

  In this study, the author uses the letters, diaries, memoirs, and reports of veterans from three conflicts - the First and Second World Wars 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 ordinary, gentle human beings in civilian life can become enthusiastic killers without becoming brutalized by the horrors of combat. She also contends that people find ways of creating meaning out of war, and that one way to do this is to find satisfaction in it, especially in the primal act of slaughtering an enemy that you can see and touch. She believes that violent and sadistic men are not the best killers, and that it is the men motivated by emotions like love and empathy that become the most lethal individuals on the battlefield. Bourke goes on to suggest that it is the feeling of guilt itself that may enable what soldiers believe to be legitimate killing, and presents evidence of the way in which combat could become atrocity in 20th century warfare.