Killing And Being Killed Bodies In Battle

What bodily experiences did fighters make through their lifetime and especially in violent conflicts? How were the bodies of fighters trained, nourished, and prepared for combat? How did they respond to wounds, torture and the ubiquitous risk of death? The articles present examples of body techniques of fighters and their perception throughout the Middle Ages. The geographical scope ranges from the Anglo-Scottish borderlands over Central Europe up to the Mediterranean World. This larger framework enables the reader to trace the similarities and differences of the cultural practice of "Killing and Being Killed" in various contexts. Contributions by Iain MacInnes, Alastair J. Macdonald, Bogdan-Petru Maleon, and others.

The stories of what happened after the shooting stopped and the process of burying bodies in the wake of Civil War carnage and chaos. The clash of armies in the American Civil War left hundreds of thousands of men dead, wounded, or permanently damaged. Skirmishes and battles could result in casualty numbers as low as one or two and as high as tens of thousands. The carnage of the battlefield left a lasting impression on those who experienced or viewed it, but in most cases the armies quickly moved on to meet again at another time and place. When the dust settled and the living armies moved on, what happened to the dead left behind? Unlike battle narratives, The Aftermath of Battle picks up the story as the battle ends. The burial of the dead was an overwhelming experience for the armies or communities forced to clean up after the destruction of battle. In the short-term action, bodies were hastily buried to avoid the stench and the horrific health concerns of massive death; in the long-term, families struggled to reclaim loved ones and properly reinter them in established cemeteries. Visitors to a battlefield often wonder what happened to the dead once the battle was over. This compelling, easy-to-read overview, enhanced with extensive photos and illustrations, provides a look at the aftermath of battle and the process of burying the Civil War dead.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • An "extraordinary ... profoundly moving" history (The New York Times Book Review) of the American Civil War that reveals the ways that death on such a scale changed not only individual lives but the life of the nation. An estiated 750,000 soldiers lost their lives in the American Civil War. An equivalent proportion of today's population would be seven and a half million. In This Republic of Suffering, Drew Gilpin Faust describes how the survivors managed on a practical level and how a deeply religious culture struggled to reconcile the unprecedented carnage with its belief in a benevolent God. Throughout, the voices of soldiers and their families, of statesmen, generals, preachers, poets, surgeons, nurses, northerners and southerners come together to give us a vivid understanding of the Civil War's most fundamental and widely shared reality. With a new introduction by the author, and a new foreword by Mike Mullen, 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

A SUNDAY TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 'A triumph' Guardian 'Glorious ... makes the past at once familiar, exotic and thrilling.' Dominic Sandbrook 'A brilliant book' Mail on Sunday Just like us, medieval men and women worried about growing old, got blisters and indigestion, fell in love and had children. And yet their lives were full of miraculous and richly metaphorical experiences radically different to our own, unfolding in a world where deadly wounds might be healed overnight by divine intervention, or the heart of a king, plucked from his corpse, could be held aloft as a powerful symbol of political rule. In this richly-illustrated and unusual history, Jack Hartnell uncovers the fascinating ways in which people thought about, explored and experienced their physical selves in the Middle Ages, from Constantinople to Cairo and Canterbury. Unfolding like a medieval pageant, and filled with saints, soldiers, caliphs, queens, monks and monstrous beasts, it throws light on the medieval body from head to toe - revealing the surprisingly sophisticated medical knowledge of the time in the process. Bringing together medicine, art, music, politics, philosophy and social history, there is no better guide to what life was really like for the men and women who lived and died in the Middle Ages. Medieval Bodies is published in association with Wellcome Collection.

The senses -- The dirty body -- The foot -- The wound -- The corpse.

One hundred thirty six American soldiers, isolated from supporting units, hunted the dark jungles of Phuoc Tuy Province for the Viet Cong main force battalion D-800. The enemy found Charlie Company first. Surrounded; then gutted, these Americans had been used as bait to draw out the enemy. Charlie Company’s heroic but doomed stand did not go according to American plans. General William Westmoreland called the disaster a “serious blow.” The Army Chief of Staff, Harold K. Johnson, personally flew to Vietnam to confront Westmoreland and warn him that the American people would stop supporting the war if such costly battles continued. There were heroes and there were cowards and some were both heroes and cowards. They were all soldiers of the United States who were sent to fight in Southeast Asia by men in the halls of power who demonstrated no particular bravery in ordering these soldiers to fight and die. Particular Bravery focuses on a company of warriors who labeled themselves “grunts” and honored military service as a patriotic obligation and believed fighting in Vietnam was their duty. The soldiers’ memories are the core of Particular Bravery. Here are the grunts’ recollections of their march to a night when 80% of them fell in battle. They recall the friendly fire that shattered the unit; they relive the hail of gunfire that decimated their ranks; they recount the murder of their wounded friends and their own belief that as the noose tightened, they were next; they remember the battle’s aftermath as they marched past rows of blood-stained ponchos that covered their dead comrades. It is also the story of unbelievable heroism, as a gun-ho former Marine turned Army Sergeant repeatedly risked his own life for his comrades while an Air Force Pararescue hotshot volunteered to drop into hell so that others might live.

A tale inspired by the 1976 attempted assassination of Bob Marley spans decades and continents to explore the experiences of journalists, drug dealers, killers, and ghosts against a backdrop of social and political turmoil.

This volume, newly published in paperback, is part of a comprehensive effort by R. J. Rummel to understand and place in historical perspective the entire subject of genocide and mass murder, or what he calls democide. It is the fifth in a series of volumes in which he offers a detailed analysis of the 120,000,000 people killed as a result of government action or direct intervention. In Power Kills, Rummel offers a realistic and practical solution to war, democide, and other collective violence. As he states it, "The solution...is to foster democratic freedom and to democratize coercive power and force. That is, mass killing and mass murder carried out by government is a result of indiscriminate, irresponsible Power at the center." Rummel observes that well-established democracies do not make war on and rarely commit lesser violence against each other. The more democratic two nations are, the less likely is war or smaller-scale violence between them. The more democratic a nation is, the less severe its overall foreign violence, the less likely it will have domestic collective violence, and the less its democide. Rummel argues that the evidence supports overwhelmingly the most important fact of our time: democracy is a method of nonviolence.

Based on classified documents and interviews, argues that American acts of violence against millions of Vietnamese civilians during the Vietnam War were a pervasive and systematic part of the war.