Includes bibliographical references (pages 365-499) and index.

"The characteristic act of men at war is killing, not dying, Joanna Bourke argues. For politicians, military strategists and many historians, war may be about the conquest of territory or the struggle to recover a sense of national honor, but for the man on active service warfare is a sanctioned bloodletting." "In An Intimate History of Killing Bourke presents us with a graphic, unromanticized and chilling look at men at war, and revises many long-held beliefs about the nature of violence and the behavior of soldiers in the three great wars of this century. The two world wars and the Vietnam War bloodied the hands and consciences of thousands of British, American and Australian men and women. In this book, the combatants - men and women, soldiers, nurses and priests - share their fantasies and experiences of "intimate" killing and, in the process, reveal themselves as individuals transformed by a range of conflicting emotions: fear and ecstasy, rage and exhilaration, hatred and empathy." "What kind of men make the best killers? How do soldiers cope with the horrors they witness and the atrocities they are ordered to commit? How do soldiers readjust to "normal" civilian life? These and many other disturbing questions are answered in a series of sharply drawn chapters."--Jacket

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