In this absorbing account, Vietnam veteran and classics scholar Lawrence A Tritle offers an incisive analysis of war and its impact upon the soldier and civilian from the classical age to the present day.

Tritle discusses the links between battlefield experiences that affect the participants and victims of war in every age, drawing examples from sources as diverse as the Iliad, Michael Herr's Dispatches, Thucydides' account of the Pelopenesian Wars, and the Oliver Stone film Platoon. Each instance sheds light on some of the most puzzling phemonena of war and shows how the heroes of epic responded to battle with their own forms of "shellshock, " battle-madness and bonding. He examines such issues as:
-- Attitudes toward the "enemy"
-- What makes ordinarily decent men commit acts of extraordinary savagery?
-- The impact of war on waiting wives, lovers and civilian bystanders
-- Remembering the fallen soldier: from the classic Athenian funeral speech to the Vietnam Wall
-- How veterans live with physical and psychological injury

This memorable book is for readers who wonder about the meaning and experience of battle, about the impact of war and violence on our culture, and for anyone interested in the culture of ancient Greece.