If you believe that war is likely to be with us as long as this sinful world persists; if you suspect that the nature of war has nevertheless changed over the past two centuries; if you think that battle reveals human character, its strengths and weaknesses, its quirky individuality; if you are convinced that rejecting war altogether is not the only possible Christian choice—then this book is for you.

Military historian Max Hastings writes extremely well and commands an encyclopedic knowledge of his subject. In 15 chapters he offers a gallery of portraits, from the Napoleonic Wars to Israel's 1973 Yom Kippur War. With one exception, each chapter focuses on a single individual.

Hastings, a gifted storyteller, has assembled a colorful and richly varied cast (including the hero of Gettysburg, Joshua Chamberlain, a devout Christian who was a professor of modern languages at Bowdoin College when the Civil War began and a most unlikely candidate for leadership in the heat of battle). But he seeks to provoke as well: to make us think about bravery, heroism, and sacrifice, unfashionable notions these days, in a way that is neither sentimental nor unreflectively dismissive.

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