Books for Prep | |
by: Dave Grossman  List Price: $15.99 Amazon.com's Price: $10.87 You Save: $5.12 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 355.0019 EAN: 9780316330114 Edition: 1 ISBN: 0316330116 Label: Back Bay Books Manufacturer: Back Bay Books Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 400 Publication Date: November 01, 1996 Publisher: Back Bay Books Studio: Back Bay Books Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: The twentieth century, with its bloody world wars, revolutions, and genocides accounting for hundreds of millions dead, would seem to prove that human beings are incredibly vicious predators and that killing is as natural as eating. But Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, a psychologist and U.S. Army Ranger, demonstrates this is not the case. The good news, according to Grossman - drawing on dozens of interviews, first-person reports, and historic studies of combat, ranging from Frederick the Great's battles in the eighteenth century through Vietnam - is that the vast majority of soldiers are loath to kill. In World War II, for instance, only 15 to 25 percent of combat infantry were willing to fire their rifles. The provocative news is that modern armies, using Pavlovian and operant conditioning, have learned how to overcome this reluctance. In Korea about 50 percent of combat infantry were willing to shoot, and in Vietnam the figure rose to over 90 percent. The bad news is that by conditioning soldiers to overcome their instinctive loathing of killing, we have drastically increased post-combat stress - witness the devastated psychological state of our Vietnam vets as compared with those from earlier wars. And the truly terrible news is that contemporary civilian society, particularly the media, replicates the army's conditioning techniques and - according to Grossman's controversial thesis - is responsible for our rising rates of murder and violence, particularly among the young. In the explosive last section of the book, he argues that high-body-count movies, television violence (both news and entertainment), and interactive point-and-shoot video games are dangerously similar to thetraining programs that dehumanize the enemy, desensitize soldiers to the psychological ramifications of killing, and make pulling the trigger an automatic response. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Off TargetAmidst the smoke and karaoke crooning of New Year's Eve, a friend and I got to talking about trauma. I'm a US Navy veteran; I never killed, but I served in war zones and as a police officer. Her eyes gleamed as she recommended a book--Dave Grossman's *On Killing*. Lt Colonel Grossman, retired, claims to publish the first study of killing... albeit built on the research of many others. So imagine my surprise when I found a political treatise. --On Insults-- Read More Rating:  - OutstandingBuy it without hesitation. This is a seminal work. It should be mandatory reading for every law enforcement person if they're serious about truly beginning to understand their work environment. Rating: - An eye opening readLt. Col. Dave Grossman's On Killing is a phenominal work. It serves to blatantly scrutinize one of our society's biggest blind spots and social taboos: killing. Everything our society thinks it knows about wartime combat is fundamentally flawed; our conception of the righteous (or less so) soldier wading through battle without thought of the lives he takes is a lie. One of the most interesting points is the exploration of firing rates in historical wars and man's natural reluctance to kill, which ... Read More Rating: - on combatI liked the book. I aspired to be come a marine back in the early 80's after finishing college. I talked with some former viet-nam vets who convinced me that graduate school was a better option. I followed their advice based on the stories they told me...this book is a very good testimony of some of their experiences. now at 49 I wish I had become a marine anyway when I had the chance. I personally was'nt aware of the fact that many soldiers on both sides never used their weapons and I side with the ... Read More Rating: - Must read for the military or police.This book, as many have stated, is great for understanding the psychology of someone returning from the battlefield. But for those who have yet to enter the battlefield, or will shortly find themselves returning, I suggest they read On Combat. That book deals much more with the subject of the physiology and psychology of the act of combat itself and how to prepare for it, rather than how to recognize and deal with it after the fact. 
In association with Amazon.com | |