Soldiers, Max Hastings
Soldiers, Max Hastings
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Soldiers

Author: Max Hastings

Narrator: Max Hastings, Ric Jerrom

Unabridged: 24 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/28/2021

Synopsis

‘A gripping new collection from Max Hastings that puts you at the heart of the battle … Compelling’ ‘An unmissable read’ Soldiers Here you will meet Jewish heroes of the Bible, Rome’s captain of the gate, Queen Boudicca, Joan of Arc, Cromwell, Wellington, Napoleon’s marshals, Ulysses S. Grant, George S. Patton and the modern SAS. There are tales of great writers who served in uniform including Cobbett and Tolstoy, Edward Gibbon and Siegfried Sassoon, Marcel Proust and Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell and George MacDonald Fraser. Here are also stories of the female ‘’ fighters of Dahomey and heroic ambulance drivers of World War I, together with the new-age women soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The stories reflect a change of mood towards warfare through the ages: though nations and movements continue to inflict terrible violence upon each other, most of humankind has retreated from the old notion of war as a sport or pastime, to acknowledge it as the supreme tragedy. This is a book to inspire in turn fascination, excitement, horror, amazement, occasionally laughter. Max Hastings mingles respect for the courage of those who fight with compassion for those who become their victims, above all civilians, and especially in the twenty-first century, which some are already calling ‘the Post-Heroic Age’.

About Max Hastings

Max Hastings is the author of twenty-eight books, most about conflict, and between 1986 and 2002 served as editor in chief of the Daily Telegraph, then as editor of the Evening Standard. He has won many prizes, for both his journalism and his books, the most recent of which are the bestsellers Vietnam, The Secret War, Catastrophe, and All Hell Let Loose. Knighted in 2002, Hastings is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of King’s College London, and a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He has two grown children, Charlotte and Harry, and lives with his wife, Penny, in West Berkshire, where they garden enthusiastically.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Robert

A collection of soldiers recollections collated by Max Hastings. These memories range from the King James Version of the Bible and up to the 20th Century. The stories are at times poignant, sad or brutal and provide an interesting insight from the perspective of ‘the person on the ground’ rather tha......more

Goodreads review by Ian

Journalist and historian Max Hastings brings together a collection of writing about the life of the soldier, starting in biblical times and coming up to date with the Gulf and Afghanistan. The early accounts are mostly by academics but as literacy spreads among the common soldiery in the 19th century......more

Goodreads review by Daniel

This is a riveting volume of various tales of valour, humour, genius and tragedy to label some of the stories that take us from the Old Testament to contemporary theatres of war. I for sure left some tales tabbed so that I won’t be letting them slip from my memory.......more

Goodreads review by Gideon

At times shocking. At times you want to cry. The story of Rommels last day at home is a MUST read......more

Goodreads review by Andy

A really interesting set of well edited tales of war, written by eye witnesses. Especially interesting to those who have been in or studied the military. I really enjoyed reading this book.......more

Quotes

‘[Stories] of breathtaking derring-do … A gripping new collection from Max Hastings that puts you at the heart of the battle … In his powerful new book, , he has collected first-person accounts that illustrate in searing detail and immediacy all the violence, grief, pathos, black humour and courage of conflict. In these compelling extracts, a young officer agonises over his decision to leave a dying comrade, a badly wounded Gurkha gets back into battle, and a legendary field marshal is executed by his own side’ ‘These accounts show the reality of military life … A pointillist portrait of enthralling sensitivity … stories tumble from the pages of this book like gems from a pirate’s chest … The anecdotes about female soldiers in this book are fascinating’ ‘An unmissable read … A brilliant, wide-ranging anthology … The book ambly proves Max Hastings’s contention that “all generalisations about soldiers fail” and that “they come in as many sorts and conditions as does the rest of humanity” … The sheer variety of voices for which Hastings has found room is impressive … The most famous names of military history, from Julius Caesar to Erwin Rommel, have their places, yet some of the most compelling tales are those of ordinary, often reluctant warriors. For all those who share Hastings’s “fascination with wars and those who have fought through the ages”, Soldiers is an unmissable collection’ ‘A delightful book, which can be dipped into anywhere and which will provide enormous enjoyment to all those who are interested in how people react to war’ ‘A fascinating collection of military stories … The sort of book that can be picked up at intervals … [but] once tasted, is hard to put down’

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