Warriors: Portraits from the Battlefield

Hastings selects 15 individuals from military history to try and show what made them tick and gave them their footnotes in history.
The title is important - Warriors - this is not necessarily about heroes, but is about individuals who rose to the challenge when needed. This is a flaws and all view, the good stuff is balanced with public perception and details of their personal lives. You will not like some of the characters you meet in this book, but you will be interested to read about them and how they slot into military history. Well worth picking up if you want the detail behind the conflict at an individual level.

The author describes his heroes as human beings, not extraordinary people except for the warrior qualities - sometimes one feels sorry for them, although one got to admire them because of their fighting spirit. Certainly, in this world we need people with different qualities.

Some interesting descriptions of campaigns in this book, too.

Mr Hastings was not quite up to the mark of his WWII histories, perhaps because his heart simply wasn't in it. I got the feeling that he was writing at the urging of his publisher to get something in print , although many of his protagonists were indeed interesting, but largely sidebars to the great historical sweeps which he can so aptly cover. I find his conclusion that heroes are largely people whom you might not like somewhat of a stretch, although he indeed did butress his postion with examples, if not even-handedness.

With his customary eloquence, Max Hastings prevents the unvarnished tales of war "heroes" from many countries over the past two centuries. A genius for creating a lively scene, he lends verve and striking detail to his narratives and does not spare us the warts of these sometimes deeply unpleasant and troubled individuals. An exciting and informative read.

I found myself alternately enthusing over this book and despairing of it. Perhaps the author's most telling observation is that in popular culture, Americans and Europeans are increasingly unable to distinguish between heroism and mere celebrity. In fact, some dictionaries actually define "hero" as someone who is well known. Hastings' heroes are all genuinely heroic, though (as he demonstrates) for varying reasons.

However....his chapter titled "The Killer" (about Edward Rickenbacker) contains so many egregious errors that there's no point cataloging them here. For unfathomable reasons, Hastings accepts a WW I psychologist's report that ace pilots were either "impulsives, paranoids, or psychopaths." Hastings further concludes, "It is fair to say few aces were sympathetic human beings."

I've known perhaps 200 aces from half a dozen countries, and my conclusions vary drastically from Hastings'. Clearly he has no acquaintance of the breed, which contains more than its share of egomaniacs, but that's a long-long way from psychopathic, unsatisfactory humans.

Hastings does well when he sticks to what he knows. Unfortunately, this book demonstrates that he knows nothing about aerial combat.