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On Killing

the Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
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unbalancedbutfair
Nov 04, 2012unbalancedbutfair rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This book has some very valuable ideas in it. It builds off of groundbreaking research from WWII about the effects of "battle fatigue" ("shellshock" in the previous war, "post traumatic stress disorder" now days). Along with that research was information about the firing rate, namely that for much of the history of war only a minority of the soldiers in the field tried to kill the enemy. This was a very well made argument that is very intruiging He quickly points out that something that common cannot be cowardice but rather is something important about human psychology in general. And if there is that much natural resistance to killing there are important questions such as "how do you get soldiers to kill?" and the repurcussions "What are the psychological ramifications?" While he is plodding and repetitive at points the substance of his arguments are well worth entertaining. I would like to see more sources and research in this area, which is part of his argument, that there has been a lack of study of this important aspect of human civilization. Anyone interested in war, killing, or society would benefit from reading this. Don't necessarily swallow it, but entertain it.