Americans in Battle

New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, Inc, 1973. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good/Good. x, 213, [1] pages. Some DJ wear and edge soiling. Includes List of Illustrations, Sources, Acknowledgments and Bibliography, and Index. Chapters cover The Rowdy Strain; Beating the British; Appetite for Empire; Civil War--Ultimate Indecency; Johnny Reb; Billy Yank; Looking for a War; "We didn't care a whoop"; "I hope the war doesn't end too quick"; Candid Comment; GI at War; A Particular Kind of Glory; Over There--Again; Heroes and Hoodlums; No Picnic in Korea; and Vietnam--the Pride and the Shame. This study of the American fighting man provides graphic accounts of all the major and minor conflicts in American history. From the victory over the British at New Orleans in 1814, to the air battles over North Vietnam, the book provides close ups of the man in the line of battle. Part One provides graphic accounts of all the major and many of the minor conflicts in American history, with close-ups of the man in the line of battle--from the victory over the British at New Orleans in 1814, the American Civil War, the grueling battles with the Indians, to World War I and World War II. Part Two studies the psychology of the American fighting man, and points out the strange contrasts and contradictions in his mental and emotional make-up; his simplicity and cunning; his psychiatric problems; his sense of "martial' honor; his appetite for sex; his crime and racketeering; and his cowardice and heroism. Finally, the system that produces the American soldier today is closely examined--his role as the instrument of the "great defender" all over the world and the attitudes of the commanding generals. John Laffin (21 September 1922 - 23 September 2000) was an Australian 20th century military historian. In 1941 he enlisted as a Private into the 2nd Australian Imperial Force, subsequently being commissioned as an officer and going on to see active service in the New Guinea campaign in World War II. In the early 1960s, he began writing military histories, which after a few years sold well enough to allow him to earn a living as a professional military historian and writer, as well as intermittent pieces of journalism in the field. Laffin was a prodigious author, producing works regularly for publication on a range of modern military history subjects, ranging from conflicts in the Middle East, the Falklands War, and several works on World War II, but the central subject that he returned to repeatedly throughout his career over the next 40 years was the British experience of World War I. Laffin was the instigator behind the creation of the Australian Corps Memorial Park, at Le Hamel, France, dedicated to the Australian troops who served on the Western Front in World War I.[6] He also founded the Families & Friends of the 1st Australian Imperial Force, a society dedicated to maintaining the historical and cultural memory of the men of Australia's primary expeditionary force that fought in World War I.