The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle

by J. Glenn Gray, Hannah Arendt (Introduction)

"A superb study of modern combat man, and his relationship to death, and his thoughts about it." — Chicago Sunday Tribune Selected for the 2019 Commandant's Professional Reading List

J. Glenn Gray entered the army as a private in May 1941, having been drafted on the same day he was informed of his doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University. He was discharged as a second lieutenant in October 1945, having been awarded a battlefield commission during fighting in France. Gray saw service in North Africa, Italy, France, and Germany in a counter-espionage unit.

Fourteen years after his discharge, Gray began to reread his war journals and letters in an attempt to find some meaning in his wartime experiences. The result is The Warriors , a philosophical meditation on what warfare does to us and an examination of the reasons soldiers act as they do. Gray explains the attractions of battle—the adrenaline rush, the esprit de corps—and analyzes the many rationalizations made by combat troops to justify their actions. In the end, Gray notes, “War reveals dimensions of human nature both above and below the acceptable standards for humanity.” 

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Military Fiction, Philosophy, War, World War II, Military History

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

Reviews

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never heard of this book before, but it was a great study of men in combat. J. Glenn Gray was drafted on the same day he received his PhD in philosophy from Columbia University in May 1941. He was discharged as a 2nd Lieutenant in October 1945. Fourteen years later, Gray reread his war journals in an attempt to find some meaning in his wartime experiences. He wrote this book, a philosophical meditation on what warfare does to us and why soldiers act as they do. By the end, he notes, "War reveals dimensions of human nature both above and below the acceptable standards for humanity."

His second chapter is called "The Enduring Appeals of Battle." Already I'm thinking, "This is a man who gets it and isn't afraid to say it." We can hide our heads in the sand and not appreciate why we have war, or we can look at it head on. For many men, war is what Dixon Wecter has called "the one great lyric passage in their lives." Gray lists the three appeals of war: "the delight in seeing, the delight in comradeship, and the delight in destruction." Fighters may know one or more of these appeals or some others that Gray is not aware of. If I were to add one more to Gray's list, it would be the delight in feeling alive. I have never been more alive than when I knew I could die at any moment.

The delight in seeing is probably the least understood. It is that rubberneck urge to see what is happening. Perhaps it is the Aristotelian idea of a catharsis. If we experience it and escape alive, we now know and go out and tell others. We need to see the unusual and not just the everyday.

War is beautiful. I have a line like that in one of my poems. I was surprised at the great beauty of it all. It is "wrong to believe that only beauty can give us aesthetic delight; the ugly can please us too." Every artist knows this. In addition to the disorder, war has "color and movement, variety, panoramic sweep, and sometimes even momentary proportion and harmony." As Robert E. Lee was reputed to have said, "It is well that war is so terrible--we would grow too fond of it."

The next point I have to quote verbatim: "Happiness is doubtless the wrong word for the satisfaction that men experience when they are possessed by the lust to destroy and to kill their kind. Most men would never admit that they enjoy killing, and there are a great many who do not. On the other hand, thousands of youths who never suspected the presence of such an impulse in themselves have learned in military life the mad excitement of destroying."

Hemingway said in For Whom the Bell Tolls: "Stop making dubious literature . . . and admit that you have liked to kill as all who are soldiers by choice have enjoyed it at some time whether they lie about it or not."

Chapter 3 is called "Love: War's Ally and Foe." Again, right on the money and not afraid to say so. The Greeks understood when Aphrodite mated with Ares.

Gray describes a moment when he went through a cave in Italy where there was no sanitation. A woman grabbed his hand in a move that was "unmistakably amorous."

Soldiers tend to concentrate on sex and women. Perhaps their most common word is "fuck." Many soldiers seemed "unable to utter a sentence without using it at least once." Just invoking the word seems enough. Legal brothels have often been provided for soldiers throughout history. Prostitution and soldiers seem to go hand in hand. A WWII expression: Soldiers want three things: Get drunk, get laid, and get home. But I also saw love between soldiers and the "girls" they coupled up with in Vietnam.

The darkest side of this is, of course, the rape that goes on. We see sex slaves in the Mideast today. My girlfriend in Vietnam had been sold to a soldier and raped in a locked room when she was younger.

Women also bring a "gentleness and affection" needed by men in wartime. All soldiers will remember some connection to their wartime experiences. Many times the soldiers and their loved ones did not even understand each other's language. The inability to communicate only "heightened the joy of discovery for them."

It is surprising that the French did not understand why French women found lovers with the German soldiers. These women were shamed publicly.

Chapter 4 is "The Soldier's Relations to Death." Death in combat is a reality. We know it is out there coming at us. Outside of combat, we plan for a long future. No one appreciates life more as he who is about to die or could possibly die. When you think you can live forever, you lose sight of the value of this moment. Death becomes something that happens to someone else, especially for the young.

"Soldiers fall and die in such contorted and unnatural positions, as a rule, that even their comrades find it hard to believe that, shortly before, they were alive. This is part of the mystery of death: those who enter its realm are quickly far removed from the living."

In one story, fleeing Germans steal horses. But when they are killed, no one is able to look at the horses without shuddering. Death came through with such clarity when looking at the eyes of the horses.

In the war poems of Rupert Brooke, death is longed for as the only possibility of giving life authenticity and creative power. All creation is a kind of dying. Combat soldiers become almost dedicated to death. Soldiers can find a meaning in their wartime experiences not available at home.

Chapter 5 is "Images of the Enemy." Even in this WWII book, armed warfare was becoming more where civilians were being killed from a distance with planes and cannons. Military ethics were disappearing. We begin to reach the conclusion: "Any act that helps my side win the war is right and good, and any act that hinders it is wrong and bad." We learn "Never give your enemy a chance." Restraints fall. We are conditioned to hate the enemy. They become easier to kill.

A civilian removed from the battlefield may be more bloodthirsty than the front-line soldier. Many WWII soldiers were appalled to receive letters from home wanting to know how many kills they had. The front-line soldier takes prisoners and knows a human being who wants to live.

Gray describes a scene where prisoners hum a tune and everyone joins in. Reminiscent of the perhaps the greatest ending to a war movie of all time: the ending of Paths of Glory directed by Stanley Kubrick. A must-see war film.

But when a soldier loses a friend, his anger turns to absolute hatred and a desire to exterminate every last one of the enemy.

The German general Rommel always treated his prisoners as comrades in arms.

Sometimes the enemy is seen as sub-human. Officers may even train their soldiers in hatred.

Chapter 6 is "The Ache of Guilt." In WWII the number of civilians who lost their lives exceeded the number of soldiers killed in combat.

Combat soldiers often fail to support their comrades in warfare at a critical moment, either by a sin of omission or commission. Sometimes officers can expose their men to needless destruction. Add to this the unnumbered acts of injustice so omnipresent in warfare. How could any soldier be free of care after all of that? The fact is that a great number of veterans are able to free themselves of responsibility. And our former enemies often show little regret or repentance. Gray says: "Americans in Germany after WWII, for instance, feel aggrieved that the German populace does not feel more responsibility for having visited Hitler upon the world. Germans, for their part, resent the fact that few Americans appear to regret the bombing of German cities into rubble and the burning and crushing of helpless women and children." We tend to point a finger and ignore our own faults.

Gray speaks of listening to Fascist and Nazi police and party functionaries saying, "My conscience is clear! I have done nothing wrong!" And "I was just carrying out orders!" It reminds me of police on trial today saying, "I felt my life was in danger." Say it no matter what.

Gray tells a story of a German soldier who refused to fire in an execution squad. He was then lined up and killed by his comrades.

Guilt often comes gradually. Older soldiers often feel the pain. There is no escaping the uniform you wear. Many American soldiers felt shock and shame at the nuclear bombs in Japan. Men of conscience know that the people there are not guilty of war.

Collective guilt can overtake a country as it did in Germany.

The final chapter is "The Future of War." As a young man, Gray secretly wished for a war he could participate in. That desire is in others. Thus, war will go on. And may I say from experience, life after war can seem boring. The intensity of life during war knows no equal.

[Naeem · Rating 4 out of 5]

The very best thing I have read on the attractions of war come from this book. Gray fought in WWII, survived, went to graduate school in philosophy, and decided to write a book.

I suspect that Chris Hedges War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning performs a similar function. In the Western canon, this line of thinking comes from Hegel. (See especially, D.P. Verene's chapter, "Hegel's Account of War," in Hegel's Political Philosophy: Problems Perspectives edited by Z. A. Pelczynski.) Hegel argues that war will never end so long as the warrior continues to be a viable human identity. What Hegel, Hedges, and Gray ask is: what qualities in the identity of a warrior attract us? What aspects of war draw our ethical -- yes, ethical -- desires?

To answer these questions Gray has chapters on the following: the aesthetic spectacle of War, the creation of camaraderie, and the opportunity to sacrifice one's life for a larger purpose.

To treat war as a regrettable aspect of the human condition, to treat it merely as a part of us that has gone wrong is (1) to not take war seriously, (2) therefore to offer palliatives for deep social wounds, and (3) to perpetuate the hidden culture that secretly and not so secretly valorizes war.

What Hegel, Hedges, and Gray do instead is to admit and face head on how war attracts us, galvanizes us, and gives our lives substantial meaning. Then and only then do they begin to offer a diagnosis.

The writing is beautiful but one must labor through this book because initially the terrain seems so foreign. If we accept the familiarity of this new country, then we return to it again and again.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had read this book as a textbook while an undergraduate, but it was wasted on me then. It was just words. Now, as a slightly more mature adult in my 50s, who has served in Bosnia and a couple of times in Afghanistan, it had more resonance. I re-read it over Memorial Day weekend.

I was struck by a couple of things. The first was the depth and complexity of his entries in his war journal. Amazing that he had the time and discipline to keep up with it.

Another was that soldiers are fundamentally unchanged. Despite circumstances that could not have been more different than the type of total war he experienced, many of his observations ring true today. On the other hand, I was struck by the callous disregard for human life that he was exposed to daily and thought how different that was from the way war is fought now (at least by the USA). I think he'd have been amazed at the amount of effort spent on minimizing collateral death when striking a target, and the idea that the population IS the target, at least kinetically, is long gone. We also take measures at great cost in money and logistical support to protect our soldiers - like dedicated support from heavy bombers for a small tactical unit - that reflect the shift from draftee soldiers being expendable cogs in an industrial war machine to precious professional assets that are spent sparingly.

I didn't agree with everything in this book, and I daresay several veterans of WWII would disagree with some bits too. But his observations and conclusions are a product of his experience, and perceptions of war (or life for the poor civilians who happen to live there) in a combat zone are different for every person there. The lens through which experiences are viewed is also different based on culture, education, and personality. Ultimately, I agreed a lot more than I disagreed with his conclusions, and I understand his viewpoint even when I disagreed.

There's so much more. This is a relatively short book. But it will stay in your thoughts long after you finish it.

[Chris Tolve · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1941, J. Glenn Gray received two letters in the mail. One was his doctorate, officially naming him a philosopher. The other was his induction from the U.S. military into the Second World War. He fought for four years in Europe and Africa, recording his thoughts in a journal and letters to friends, and years later he wrote this book reflecting on the experience.

To be sure, this is a book about war. But it is really much more; despite the misleading title, Gray's conviction is that the warrior lives within all of us, civilian or soldier. If you're looking for a WWII memoir, this isn't it. What you'll find is a deeply stirring philosophical meditation on war, love, death, freedom, history, religion, psychology, human community and friendship, the construction of meaning, guilt, dehumanization, the attractions of violence, and what it means to be human. The author never ceases to struggle through the tension between imagining a world without war, if such a thing is possible, and confronting humanity as a species that needs warfare to sustain its very vitality. Gray refuses to flatly condemn violence as something wholly irrational and undesirable. Instead, he grapples with the ways in which it renders our lives meaningful, giving us purpose and adventure, making passionate love possible, showing us aesthetic beauty and communal ecstasy, and allowing us to purge ourselves of our destructive impulses. The question he poses is -- can we find an activity through which to channel those impulses without violence? No easy answer is given.

One powerful insight Gray forces us to accept is the danger of what he calls "abstract hatred." He observes, counterintuitively, that the soldiers battling at the front possess the least enmity toward their enemy, whereas those directing the fighting from non-combat positions, or those not involved in the military at all, are the most bloodthirsty. This results in funny anecdotes where soldiers are shocked to receive letters from girlfriends back home urging them to kill as many Japs or Germans as possible in a "do it for me babe" fashion. The explanation for this discrepancy is that for non-combat observers of the war, the enemy is a mere abstraction, constructed through images, sentiments and ideas to form a one-dimensional picture. For soldiers in the thick of battle, conversely, the enemy is a concrete experience, leaving much less to the imagination. It's easy to hate what you can't see.

I am reminded of a survey taken during WWII in which 50% of the U.S. military responded that the entire Japanese nation should be wiped out after the war. Unmitigated genocide. However, those respondents in non-combat positions were more likely to advocate extermination than those actually fighting. The same pattern can be observed in genocides which become actual, such as in Bosnia and Rwanda, where the state had to bus people into ethnically mixed communities from the outside to carry out the bloodbath. This is despite popular stories of grassroots, organic violence with neighbors slaughtering neighbors as if possessed by madness. To pick a less violent example of the phenomenon, it only appears puzzling that the areas of the United States where immigrants are least likely to settle -- white, conservative, rural communities -- are also the most rabidly anti-immigration if you disregard abstract hatred. The same applies for Britain, where the neighborhoods least affected by Polish immigrants are the most opposed to Brexit.

I wrote down notes or copied quotes exceptionally frequently for this book; you won't go more than a few pages without passing upon some remarkable sentence or passage. Consequently, there's too many insights to write about here, but I would highly reccomend this book to anyone with an ounce of curiosity.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read if you are in any way interested about the psychology of soldiers in war. Gray had a PhD in philosophy when he was enlisted as a private in WWII and this book is a work of both psychology and philosophy. He discusses WWII and the soldiers in it frankly, openly, and objectively as possible; none of the good war bullshit. For the time he was writing in, the 50s, some of his conclusions are surprising and prescient. As a veteran myself, Gray gave a specific and clear voice to many things I could only vaguely identify about my own Iraq experience. I checked this out from the library, but will be buying a copy to flip through again.

[Bram Rawlings · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brilliant. As both a philosopher and a soldier, Gray is uniquely qualified to write about what humans really become under the duress of war. What stands out to me is his acquaintance with what Hannah Arendt (who, as it happens, wrote the forward) calls the “banality of evil.” For example, describing one otherwise morally respectable comrade who engaged in the utterly graciously evil of ordering the death of a civilian women with whom he had been romanticizing:

“When I remonstrated with him about such callousness, he made clear to me that he regarded himself as an army officer in a quite different way from himself as a human being. The two personalities could succeed each other with lightning rapidity, as I was to see on numerous occasions. As a human being, he was capable of kindness, even gentleness, and within limits be was just and honest. In his capacity of functionary, he could be brutal beyond measure without ever losing his outward amiability and poise. I observed precisely the same qualities in the Fascist and Nazi politicians and police with whom it was my fate to deal.”

If there is any reason to give this book only four stars, it’s his entertaining the idea that perhaps humankind can eventually beat its swords into plowshares. But, he concedes, such a transformation would have to be “apocalyptic.” Indeed.

[Blackcal · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Autrefois, les forces armées et les populations civiles étaient raisonnablement distinctes. Mais aujourd'hui, des combattants, particulièrement les artilleurs et les aviateurs, en viennent à décimer des femmes et des enfants aussi bien que des adversaires armés ; en effet, on considère de plus en plus qu'il est légitime de prendre pour cibles des populations entières.
[...]
Même dans les pays démocratiques, au mépris de toutes les règles civiles du jeu à la loyale, les soldats sont systématiquement entraînés au combat perfide. "Ne laisse jamais aucune chance à ton ennemi" est la devise qui préside à cet entraînement. [...] De nos jours, grâce à la propagande, on en est vite réduit à cette morale terriblement sommaire qui ne connaît qu'un absolu : "Toute action qui aidera mon camp à gagner la guerre est juste et bonne, et toute action qui l'en empêchera est injuste et mauvaise." Cette tendance à l'absolutisme moral, d'espèce totalitaire, affecte à notre époque tous les autres aspects de la guerre." (p.182)

Cela m'a surpris de réaliser que ce livre a été écrit en 1959, tellement il semble parler d'évènements que l'on est en train de suivre en "live" en Europe et au Moyen-Orient aujourd'hui. L'Homme ne change-t-il donc réellement jamais ?
Au combat a été écrit par Jesse Glenn Gray, un philosophe américain qui a reçu son titre de docteur en philosophie le même jour que sa notification d'incorporation dans l'armée américaine en 1941 pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. Dans ce livre, Gray alterne entre des souvenirs de son journal qu'il tenait en tant que soldat en Europe et en Afrique, et entre des réflexions terre-à-terre et hautement philosophiques sur l'effet qu'a la Guerre sur un Homme et sa transformation graduelle de civil à soldat. Les chapitres traitent de thèmes très divers tels que l'oubli après la guerre, l'amour et l'adversité durant la guerre, la perception de la mort chez le soldat, et la culpabilité soldat vs État.

"Il apparaît symptomatique d'une certaine mentalité moderne de s'émerveiller de l'absence de culpabilité chez les autres, tout en supposant comme une évidence la réalité de notre propre innocence." (p.225)

Il y a pleins de passages que je souhaiterais citer, mais le mieux est de se plonger soi-même dans ce livre singulier.

[Steven Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

The late Mr. Gray (1913-1977) offers a unique perspective on the effects of war for soldiers. The book was published in 1959 and is about his experiences during World War II. He had just received his doctorate in philosophy when he was drafted and saw campaigns in France, North Africa, Italy, and Germany. The author’s book is not a memoir as much as an analysis of the effects war has on soldiers and civilians. Don’t kid yourself, war leaves lasting psychological scars on all soldiers, even on Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation.” The author portrayal of soldiers and civilians is consistent with the other works I’ve read on the subject, all the way back to the Civil War and up to today’s engagements.

Mr. Gray used a handful of his short journal entries during World War II as examples of what occurred on a psychological and sociological level. The extreme surreal environment forces men into actions that are sometimes primal or contradictory to their personality that they display in more peaceful times. Soldiers can one moment be compassionate individuals then quickly display the most abhorrent behavior, never dreaming they had such ugly sides in themselves. ‘The Warriors’ is a 260-page condensed book but filled with acute observations on each page. Its incisiveness reminded me of the 1951 Eric Hoffer book ‘The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements.’ Mr. Gray covers such issues as the spectacle and aesthetic satisfaction of battle; comradeship; the delight in destruction; how love manifests itself in soldiers; their relationship to death being so near and arbitrary; the struggle between courage and cowardice; how soldiers envision the enemy; and how guilt factors into a soldier’s psyche. Much of the book deals in philosophical speculation by the learned author. All the issues addressed are multifaceted and understandable, even the abhorrent ones. It is not a cynical book. My only disappointment with ‘The Warriors’ was the last chapter “The Future of War.” Much has transpired since the book was published in 1959 and what the author states about efforts to avoid future wars seem simplistic and pollyannaish.

It’s easy to be judgmental of a soldier’s actions when a person is sitting comfortably, far away from any potential harm. I’m sixty years old and have never served in the military. If I’m honest with myself, there’s no way I could really know how I’d act in such hellish circumstances unless I was in the thick of it. No one knows. What Mr. Gray did so well in ‘The Warriors’ is explain the multitude of ways a human may react during war. It is dealing in many shades of gray and not black-and-white issues. He’s seen them all, up close and many of them personal. War is the “gift” that keeps on pummeling the survivors long after the victims have been devoured by worms. ‘The Warriors’ requires a little more concentration than a straightforward memoir but I thought it was well worth the effort. Mr. Gray’s book will linger in my thoughts for a long time to come.

[Craig Story]

I’ve never been in the military or involved in a war but The Warriors by J Glenn Gray was a very insightful and meaningful read. He gathered his personal experiences and knowledge from interviewing and interrogating (as it was his job) soldiers and others during WWII, and laid it out in this book to allow anyone to understand and feel the distortion and uncertainty that takes place when trying to navigate common emotions throughout warfare. Gray used tragic and often horrifying examples to illustrate his viewpoints.
Through the chapters he goes into depth about what a soldier feels looking back on the war they experienced, how they felt and dealt with the battles they fought, love during war, relations with death, how they see their enemy, guilt, and finally peace.
As a civilian taking this in, I spy fragments of conflicts that occur in my own life and was amazed at how I could relate.

[Christaaay]

Poignant and revealing about the soldier's experience before, during and after warfare. Very helpful for writing in a soldier's POV, in fact. I'm just reading short selections, but I bought it to keep on hand for moments when I'm struggling to get into my character's head.

[Joseph Stieb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gray, a WWII veteran, reflects on the experience and psychology on this thoughtful if somewhat hit or miss book. Clay weaves diary entries and letters into his argument, and he presents really profound and compelling experiences through these sources. This is one of the first major works of combat psychology, although it is really more of a philosophy book because there's not much genuine psychology in here.

There were a number of points in this book I thought were fascinating. One was the difference between comrades and friends. Gray argues that most people are capable of forming comradely relations because this is essentially bonding over a specific purpose and necessity. Comradeship reduces the individual into the group, making him more capable of fighting and surviving. In contrast, he argues that most people struggle to create friendship because friendship maintains or even enhances the individual personality in its connection to others. It requires a much stronger sense of self. Those who can't create friendship will often miss wartime terribly because comradeship was the closest they ever got to deep connections with other people.

Most of Gray's points rely on inherent logic, anecdotal evidence, and his own experience rather than systematic evidence. He's deeply a part of mid-20th century social psychology, and you can see the influence of Freud, Hoffer, and Fromm on his work. In other words, a lot of his points just hang in the air without much evidence to back them up, as do the work of these other psycho-philosphers. For example, I don't really buy Gray's conclusion about what it will take to end war. He finds the origins of war in the appeal of war as a spectacle and meaningful collective and individual experience to those who lack meaning in their own lives. He argues, quoting Nietzsche, that people need to morally decide to prefer vulnerability to other rather than being hated or feared in order to destroy war. He also contends that people who get meaning out of human relationships will no longer find war appealing. (family, work, art, etc) will not find war appealing I think this argument completely ignores the geopolitical factors that cause war. Moreover, it also ignores the fact that people will fight to protect the meaningful aspects of his life. There is a strong argument to make that people are becoming more anti-war and that war is less frequent today, but I don't think Gray has found it. Still, as a preliminary exploration of the soldier's social and psychological experience of war, this is an important and interesting book.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this ages ago in college, and found it even more moving when I reread it recently. Gray essentially makes the same argument that Simone Weil does in her famous essay "The Iliad or The Poem of Force": Where Weil states that force turns combatants into "things ... stone," Gray says "Man as warrior is only partly a man, yet, fatefully enough this aspect of him is capable of transforming the whole."

In describing the abstract, Weil's style has the power of near poetic epigram, whereas Gray's style is somewhat more academic. However, Gray also weaves in many personal reflections in the form of actual diary entries from his experience in WWII. This has the effect of creating an immediacy and human connection sometimes lacking in Weil's essay.

And in the end, I think Gray is more hopeful than Weil of one's ability to recover one's humanity in the wake of war: "Atonement will become for him not an act of faith or a deed, but a life, a life devoted to strengthening the bonds between men and between man and nature."

Gray and Weil complement each other quite effectively, but if I had to recommend one over the other, I'd probably pick Gray because of the personal element in his book, and because Weil's is at heart a critical reading of a literary work, the Iliad.

[Steve Woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is outstanding! It is rare for soldiers to have the capacity to reflect so deeply on their experience in war. Most lack the tools, the insight or the inclination. The resultant impact on identity is so overwhelming that it fells everything leaving no room much for reflection. Gray's Doctorate in Philosophy no doubt provided a framework for him that most others lack and he kept a detailed diary to help the process when eventually, when time had passed he was able to undertake the task. His experience is common to one degree or another to all combat soldiers, and that experience is like no other. He touches on many very important concepts, his analysis and deeply felt response have been so helpful to me in understanding my own. Any mental health professional dealing with returning veterans should be required to read this book, most never will, more's the pity. As a result most will be more a part of the problem than the solution!

[Kara Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part essay, part memoir, this spare, elegant book on the psychology of war will stay with me for a long time. Perhaps because the author has his doctorate in philosophy, I found his quest to describe the reasons why we go to war, how the soldier views war, and ultimately how war defines each soldier's quest for humanity hauntingly beautiful, and heartbreaking. My favorite parts of the book were sections of his own personal journal during his time at a soldier in World War II.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

A smart man talking about a deep and sorrowful topic in a tender and insightful way. This book could have been written yesterday. He makes an incredibly robust topic of how many handle the rigors and horrors of war easy to imbibe. Gray is able to break down the burdens that weigh on a man and his reactions to them into digestible chunks of personal experience and philosophy is unparalleled. Why do we fight? Because not enough of us won't.

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Philosopher's Memoirs Of WW II

J. Glenn Gray (1913 --1977) received notification that he had earned his PhD in philosophy from Columbia University and his draft notice on the same day, May 8, 1941. Gray was inducted into the army in January, 1942 and rose from the rank of private to that of second lieutenant. He saw combat but much of his army time was spent in the counterintelligence unit. After his military service, Gray went on to a career as an academic philosopher. He became a friend and translator of Martin Heidegger, and a friend of Hannah Arendt. He was a scholar of the philosophy of education and taught at Colorado College and elsewhere for many years.

I was fascinated when I learned about Gray and about this book, "The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle" with its combination of philosophy and war. Published in 1959. the book was reissued in 1970 with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. Arendt wrote a book, "The Origins of Totalitarianism" and totalitariansim and war get considerable attention in Gray's book. Gray also wrote a new Foreword in 1970, which includes his reflections of the Vietnam War. The Library of America has recently published a volume "World War II Memoirs" edited by Elizabeth D. Samet, which includes Gray's memoir, together with four other memoirs.

"The Warriors" is an unusual military memoir. It was not published for 15 years after Gray had left the army. During his time in the service, Gray had kept a journal. He made extensive use of his journal and other notes in writing the memoir. The memoir discusses incidents and events during Gray's military life, but it does much more. The larger part of the book, as the title indicates, constitutes Gray's "reflections" on war and its participants and on how Gray, as a philosopher, came to view his time in combat. The book includes many short excerpts from Gray's journal. Typically, he will quote a paragraph and explain to the reader the circumstances under which it was written. The passage, and other material, including philosophy, novels, poems, letters, religious texts, then become the basis for sustained reflection on Gray's experiences.

The book develops slowly and thoughtfully, and its scope is not immediately apparent. Gray is a religiously oriented thinker but not in a sectarian way and he appears not to share most forms of Jewish or Christian monotheism. He says that people will have to relearn how to think about religion in a new way, rather than as the Faith of their Fathers. He discusses a religion of love and of an attempt to integrate self with nature and the universe as a way by which humanity might try to end the scourge of war.

Gray also spends considerable time discussing war and "abstractions". By this he means that in warfare, soldiers see their opponents only in a limited, superficial way as "the enemy" rather than as individuals, each with a multitude of human traits and each trying to live as a human rather than as a demon or sub-human. He is deeply concerned with the total warfare that took hold during WW II and therafter with the large casualties and with the obliteration of the distinction between soldiers and civilians. The attacks on civilians reached their apex with the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan, but they were a pervasive part of the entire war. Gray discusses the threat of total warfare, bringing his concerns current, at the time, through the Vietnam War. Taking war to the civilian population is, unfortunately, still a live issue.

The book is particular as Gray discusses many individual people and incidents followed by reflections. One person that influence Gray deeply was an old hermit in rural Italy who apparently just lived his life and had no awareness of the chaos and death raging around him. The book consists of six chapters and a conclusion. Gray describes his project in the opening chapter "Remembering War and Forgetfulness". His second chapter offers several plausible reasons on why soldiers continue to fight wars in face of all the death and suffering. The third chapter discusses war and soldiers, love, sexuality and friendship. Gray's offers a profound discussion of all these in a context that is rooted in but goes beyond combat. The fourth chapter discusses death and the different ways different soldiers respond to the reality of death in combat.

The final two chapters and the conclusion are more general. In the fifth chapter, as discussed above, Gray discusses the combatants "Images of the Enemy" which involve various forms of abstractions and dehumanizations. The sixth chapter "The Ache of Guilt" discusses living with the excesses, killings and horrors of warfare upon returning to civilian life. And the conclusion "The Future of War" offers a deeply pessimistic view of the world situation and of social life following WW II and continuing. It suggests a broad spiritual/metaphysical view of life and of love as a way that humanity may try to right itself. And earlier in the book, when thinking about how he will describe his philosophical views when looking for a philosophy position after the war, Gray describes himself as a "brokenhearted idealist".

This book is slightly off the beaten path, but its inclusion in the Library of America volume will make it accessible. It is a difficult work but will reward reading by philosophically inclined readers interested in reflections on war and on soldiers in combat.

Robin Friedman

[Andrew Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A discourse on war by a participant of the Second War in Europe, who was also a philosopher. An introduction by Hannah Arendt adds the gravity to its contents. Based on his war time diaries the author discusses a number of aspects concerning the war. He discusses the enduring appeals of battle, love as war's ally and foe, the soldier's relations to death, images of enemy, the ache of guilt and future of war.

The author identifies the enduring appeals of battle to war as a spectacle, comradeship through organisation for a common goal, spiritual emptiness and inner hunger that impel many men toward combat.

When talking about the soldier's relations to death, I highlighted the following fragment: "Most of us remember with a shudder those endless pictures of Hitler's troops, before World War II, riding into one conquered country after another. They were frightening because they not only looked identical in clothing and equipment, but the set expression on their faces appeared to be vacant and purposeless. All humanity had eroded from those faces, so it seemed, and we were confronted by deadly efficient robots, who were controlled by a powerful, inhuman will."

The author quotes Nietzsche to argue that wars will be eliminated only when people decide to break their swords and rather perish than hate and fear.

[Dan Downing · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have lost track of who recommended this to me — a debt I owe. Mr. Gray served in WWII, having received, in May 1941, both his "Greetings" letter and his notification he had been granted his Ph.D. Fortunately for us, he not only survived but kept a journal during his Army days. He draws on it to aid the meditations and reflections used here to tie men in war to god, death, nationhood, humanity, and conscience. As so often happens he and I were tethered by interesting if meaningless threads. He entered his program at Columbia University as my father left him; Gray was born in Pennsylvania, not too far from where I have lived for decades. His doctorate was in philosophy, a minor of mine. Thus I delve into his work and find solid, important questions, asked and answered in smooth, workmanlike prose, devoid of jargon and deeply probed.

When I open a book published 60 years ago, I expect a different quality of paper and a writing style at variance with today's. Exactly what I found here, to my great joy. When the topics are well probed and as old as man's self-reflection, then the book and present reality entwine to our benefit.
Highly Recommended

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sober treatise on war written by a World War II vet nearly 15 years after his service in Europe. He uses his Philosophy degree, combined with a good bit of psychology, to address mankind's participation in war. The author analyzes this by using several thematic topics, such as how those in war relate to death, and to love; the nature of seeing another human as an enemy; the future of war, and so on.

Despite the sports-team connection, this 1959 work does not glorify the life or actions of a 'warrior'. To the contrary, the book is rather somber about the motivations and consequences of war, but also insightful and blunt about mankind's relationship to war - including what it does to our humanity.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very thought provoking book - Gray explores the mental and emotional side of combat and soldiers. He explores themes such as how soldiers can drawn to the beauty of battle and destruction, what motivates soldiers, and the different typologies of soldiers in a unit. His exploration of guilt is very interesting - looking at how soldiers do (or do not) feel it, deal with it, and how it is expressed as a guilt for personal actions, guilt for actions by the soldier's unit, and guilt for actions by the soldier's country.
A very thoughtful, compelling, thought provoking read.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gray earned his doctorate of philosophy from Columbia University the same day that he was drafted into the army to fight in WWII. This is book that he wrote years later after much reflection and relying on his war journals and letters to friends.

Why I started this book: Professional Reading title, and I'm always ready to read more about WWII.

Why I finished it: Deep thought in an author is rare and appreciated...

[Leonardo]

There is indeed something larger than the self, able to provide people with a sense of purpose they think worth dying for: the group. (Of course, one groups noble purpose is sometimes another groups pure evil.)

The Happiness Hypothesis Pág.238

[Brian W · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a profound book on the human dimension of warfare. It looks deep into why war appears to man, love, images of the enemy, guilt, and relations to death. Sometimes, it is too deep for me and very hard to understand. The author's vocabulary and depth are above my mental ability. Maybe I need to reread it in the future.

[Mela Lozano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dull reading. I found myself struggling to complete this book. Each chapter carries a redundant argument. The authors argument in each chapter is interesting but very hard to get through. The personal diary entries are the more exciting bits of the book.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A veteran’s self reflection on his experiences in WW2, thinking through the emotions and psychology from combat, about cowardice, love, fear, the enemy, and what he thinks this means for future wars.

[Luke Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful in the extreme. And the personal experiences deeply inform the reflections. However, modern psychology and brain studies as well as theories like “society of mind” may do more to explain the human contradictions that trouble him then his philosophical tools .

[Jay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned

[Mick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not an easy read, quite hard to follow at times. The germ of a good book is in there but this wasn't great.

[Dane Sawyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly enlightening. I Don't think I have highlighted more passages in any other book.

[Brigham Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

philosophy learned and reflected after WW2