This study of the military experience is an attempt to grasp the very nature of war. We are shown the humiliation of basic training, the soldier's attitude to fear, the compelling effect of personal leadership, the drive for sex and loot, the elixir of comradeship. Covering two centuries and including the recollections of veterans from two World Wars, from Korea, Vietnam, the Falklands and the Arab-Israeli conflicts, Richard Holmes gives us a powerful picture of what motivates the soldier and enables him to maintain the struggle in conditions of extreme degradation and danger.