Acts of War: The Behavior of Men in Battle

Whether intentional or not, this book's audience is the former or current military member. But if you have read and enjoyed works such as the first two volumes of "Roots of Strategy", you should have no trouble following this book. The author successfully shows that military personnel have mixed feelings about war. Although he addresses behavior in the midst of battle, the author seems more interested in the views about war held by those outside war itself, i.e., those who had not yet experienced it and those who were looking backward in retrospect. How those people felt in the midst of the madness is almost certainly different from how they anticipated or how they adjusted their feelings afterwards. I think this "flavor" derives from his personal-interview-and-historical-research approach. I do not see this as a negative but rather staying within his scope of knowledge and expertise. The review titled "Flawed work of a historian with no sociological credibility" seems too harshly critical. Perhaps this reviewer expected a highly technical, in-depth psychological approach. As a note: page 58 cites S.L.A. Marshall as stating that only "some 15 per cent of American infantrymen fired." True, the subject of women in the military is barely broached. However, in all fairness, the author never pretends to have extensive knowledge about how women react in battle and simply doesn't go there. Perhaps that is a deficiency of character, but not of the book. I get the feeling that this review didn't find what he wanted and then "skimmed" the book without thinking into what was being presented. Although now much more interested in peace studies, I enjoyed reading this book. I found a number of passages that shed light on where I have been and where I seek to go. I don't see this as a pro-military book although at times it may seem so. I characterize it as an honest endeavor to address and understand some of the difficult questions that most of us have concerning death and killing in war-time.

I write this review because it seems that most reviews are written on the basis of the theories or ideas of the author confronted to others the reviewers prefer. I am not an expert in militar books, I just bought this book because I picked it from a shelve and I thought I would like to read something about the subject of human behaviour in war. I found it deep, well writen and fairly interesiting. I have recommended it to frequent business literature readers and they also loved it and found in it new views of human behaviour under maximum stress circumstances. From an average man point of view, not expert in militar literature, I think it is a must read.

"Acts of War" examines the behavior of men under fire by using a combined historical/anthropological approach to the institution of soldiering. "Acts of War" is a complementary prelude to similar works such as "The Savage Mind", "On Aggression", and "On Killing". Holmes, thankfully, doesn't propogate the "Marshall-myth" premise that most troops will refuse to fire their weapons when engaged with the enemy. Archived combat footage from the Second World War, Korea, and Vietnam disproves that theory at a glance. It's unfortunate that S.L.A.M. has had such a pervasive influence on the U.S. Army's marksmanship training program for the last fifty years (if you disagree, I urge you to consult after action reports on Marine marksmanship in France extolling the virtues of the [known distance] course). Holmes goes on to provide ample evidence supporting his argument that Man is naturally predisposed to warfare. Holmes has been accused of defaming and minimizing the role of women in combat. It's an unjustified accusation. Female combatants are the exception to the rule, not the norm, and their historical contribution has been sensationalized. "Acts of War" is reminiscent of Keegan's "The Face of Battle" yet much more detailed when discussing the development and maturation of a soldier's psyche.

This book is a very revealing look at why the military does things the way it does. For example, many civilians do not understand the mindless brutality of basic training or the ultra-masculine culture of the military. This book puts everything into a real psychological perspective and explains why things are the way they are in the military. May be hard for civilians to relate to, but veterans will find this book very revealing.