Soldiers, poets, novelists & journalists have always endeavoured to commit to paper the experience of war. Whether it is being used to transmit myth, to glorify personal or tribal heroism, to fix a version of events or personal achievements, or merely to entertain, there can be no doubt that war makes magnificent literature. In this comprehensive anthology, Keegan reaps his material from the sweep of military history, from the Greek theoretical treatises on the art of warfare to the nineteenth-century novels which used war as a vehicle by which to shape their Romantic heroes, and the inspired journalistic reportage of the late 20th century.