Books about Soldiering from Amazon.com

Only a small percentage of the sixteen million servicemen called up during World War II saw front-line service. For the others, war involved training, reinforcement depots, tedious assignments, and lots of waiting. Herman J. Obermayer was one of those who earned a combat star without ever coming close enough to a battlefront to hear or see booming guns. Nonetheless, his letters then, and his reflection on them now, reveal important aspects of the war and the wartime world. From school, from basic training, and later from Europe, Obermayer wrote home with vivid descriptions of life in the Army. Reflective and observant, he recorded his views of both French and German reactions to the American occupation force, race relations among enlisted men, and the problems of supplying the troops as they crossed Europe after the Normandy invasion. One of the few people alive today to have seen Herman Goering, Rudolf Hess, and other leaders of Third Reich, Obermayer wrote compellingly about the Nazis on trial at Nuremberg, describing Goering's leadership qualities when stripped of the symbols of rank. A Jew himself, Obermayer explained his reactions at the trials when he witnessed the first documentary confirmation that six million Jews had been killed in the Holocaust. He knew and wrote about the official U.S. Army hangman at Nuremberg. Readers will find in Obermayer's letters and connective commentary a welcome tendency to look for what went on beneath the surface, a challenging view of how his experiences cast light on today's politics and issues, and an engrossingly human story of war behind the lines..
Price: $9.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

There are few moments in history when the division between the sexes seems as "natural" as during wartime: men go off to the "war front," while women stay behind on the "home front." But the very notion of the home front was an invention of the First World War, when, for the first time, "home" and "domestic" became adjectives that modified the military term "front." Such an innovation acknowledged the significant and presumably new contributions of civilians, especially women, to the war effort.

Yet, as Susan Grayzel argues, throughout the war, traditional notions of masculinity and femininity survived, primarily through the maintenance of—and indeed reemphasis on—soldiering and mothering as the core of gender and national identities. Drawing on sources that range from popular fiction and war memorials to newspapers and legislative debates, Grayzel analyzes the effects of World War I on ideas about civic participation, national service, morality, sexuality, and identity in wartime Britain and France. Despite the appearance of enormous challenges to gender roles due to the upheavals of war, the forces of stability prevailed, she says, demonstrating the Western European gender system's remarkable resilience..
Price: $27.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Describes military life for the average soldier in the Civil War, including camp life, diseases, and conditions for the wounded and prisoners of war. Includes excerpts from first-person accounts, letters, and diaries..
Price: $21.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A career in the U. S. Army in the second half of the twentieth century was a passageway to every conceivable locale, hospitable and decidedly otherwise. Henry Gole’s experiences lead the reader through the geography of one such career. The recollections of a professional soldier, Henry Gole’s account is a humorous and interesting tale of a man who loved soldiering but not necessarily the organization in which he soldiered. He feels the gratification of having served in the U. S. Army during an era when, personal doubts and political controversy notwithstanding, the world depended on America and its armed forces to preserve freedom. He offers the unique perspective of a member of the “silent generation,” those who immediately followed the World War II generation but find themselves often overlooked by historians and the media. From 1952 through 1988, covering the ordinary rifleman’s view in Korea to the Green Beret’s war in Vietnam, Gole also provides fascinating insight into the professional military at war and how these professionals relate to each other, both under great stress and during periods of decompression. Containing a wealth of leadership lessons that will serve as an invaluable guide for junior NCOs and officers alike, this thoughtful and introspective warrior has also written a moving tribute to the brave soldiers with whom he served..
Price: $4.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]