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Grunts : Inside the American Infantry Combat Experience, World War II Through Iraq - John C. McManus

Grunts

Inside the American Infantry Combat Experience, World War II Through Iraq

By: John C. McManus

Paperback | 2 August 2011 | Edition Number 1

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'Grunts is hypnotic history writing: honest, savage, heartbreaking, and, ultimately, inspiring.'
- RALPH PETERS, AUTHOR OF THE WAR AFTER ARMAGEDDON

Advances in weaponry have threatened to render the infantryman obsolete for centuries. Even today, precision-guided munitions, nuclear bombs, aerial drones, computers, and satellites have made victory in modern warfare seem like a simple matter of superior hardware, negating the need for ground soldiers. In truth, even as technology advanced at a dizzying pace throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, ground soldiers, especially infantry 'grunts,' did almost all of the fighting and dying in America's wars.

Examining ten critical battles, renowned historian John C. McManus covers six decades of warfare-from the 1944 fight on the island of Guam to modern counterinsurgency combat in Iraq-in which the courage of American troops proved the crucial difference between victory and defeat. Based on years of archival research and personal interviews with veterans, Grunts demonstrates the vital, and too often forgotten, importance of the human element in protecting the American nation, and advances a passionate plea for fundamental change in our understanding of war.

'Reading Grunts is the closest you will get to experiencing actual infantry combat without getting shot at.'
- COLONEL JERRY D. MORELOCK, PhD, U.S. ARMY (RET.), AND EDITOR IN CHIEF OF ARMCHAIR GENERAL

Industry Reviews
"A superb book--an American equivalent to John Keegan's The Face of Battle. I sincerely believe that Grunts is destined to be a classic."--Dave Grossman, Author of On Killing and On Combat

"Few authors capture the essence of the human dimension of war as well as John C. McManus. Combining an engaging, highly descriptive writing style with exhaustive research, McManus provides readers with a true 'foxhole' perspective."--Military Review

"Another demonstration of [McManus's] skill at narrating infantry combat.... an argument for a strong presence of well-trained infantry operating 'up close and personal' with heavier firepower available as support but not substitute. Both readable and persuasive."--Booklist

"Grunts is hypnotic history writing: honest, savage, heartbreaking and, ultimately, inspiring."--Ralph Peters, Fox News Strategic Analyst and author of The War After Armageddon

"John C. McManus's Grunts contains some of the most vivid accounts of close combat ever recorded in literature. The reader has the sense of being actually present in the battles. His descriptions show precise details of combat at the closest personal levels and with absolute authenticity."--Bevin Alexander, Author of Inside the Nazi War Machine

"McManus captures--with gritty, 'muddy boot' authenticity--the horrors of the real war fought by America's front-line soldiers and Marines. Reading Grunts is the closest you will get to experiencing actual infantry combat without getting shot at."--Colonel Jerry D. Morelock, Editor in Chief of Armchair General

"A literary and historical achievement of the highest order, Grunts illuminates the experience of the American GI better than any book I have read in years. Using battles such as Peleliu and Fallujah, John McManus brilliantly proves, using the participants' own words, that the American warrior, not technology, wins wars."--Patrick K. O'Donnell, Author of Washington's Immortals

"Too frequently historians take humanity out of war. McManus skillfully puts man back into the history of America's recent wars, reminding us that man is still the determining factor."--Adrian R. Lewis, Professor, University of Kansas

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