"For millennia, war was viewed as a supreme test. In the period 1750-1850 war became much more than a test: it became a secular revelation. This new understanding of war as revelation completely transformed Western war culture, revolutionizing politics, the personal experience of war, the status of common soldiers, and the tenets of military theory"--OCLC

Marines at War 20 True, Heroic Tales of U.S. Marines in Combat 1942 - 1983 by Eric Hammel 272 pages with Maps ISBN 978-0-935553-40-6 In twenty hard-hitting, action-packed true, heroic stories, Eric Hammel chronicles the making of the modern U.S. Marine Corps from the desperate Guadalcanal landings in 1942 to the tragic bombing of the Marine headquarters in Beirut in 1983. Excerpted from all of Hammel's books on Marine Corps battles and a number of articles he wrote over the years for Leatherneck and other magazines, this collection includes stories of ground combat in the South Pacific, Korea, Vietnam, and Beirut, as well as tales of Marine aviators in action in three wars. Marines at War will prove to be inspiring to Marines, former Marines, friends of the U.S. Marine Corps, and any other reader of military history who wants to know what war looks like from the bottom up. Eric Hammel is well known to military-history readers for the way he blends riveting accounts of men at the bloody spearpoint with the big picture. His blending fact with analysis is the essence of his writing. Several of the chapters in Marines at War are rendered in the actual words of combat Marines.