What do you think?
Rate this book
The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers
A unique analysis of the moral weight of warfare today through the lenses of philosophy and psychology.
Philosopher, ethicist, and psychoanalyst Nancy Sherman explores the psychological and moral burdens borne by soldiers. By illuminating the extent to which wars are fought internally as well as externally, this book expands the national discussion about war and the men and women who fight our nation’s battles. With close-up looks at servicemen and —women preparing for, experiencing, and returning home from war, Sherman probes the psyche of today’s soldiers—examining how they learn to kill and to leave the killing behind. Bringing to light the moral quandaries soldiers face—torture, the thin line between fighters and civilians, and the anguish of killing even in a just war—Sherman bares the souls of our soldiers and the emotional landscape of soldiering. At the heart of the book are interviews with soldiers, from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also from Vietnam and World Wars I and II.
Philosopher, ethicist, and psychoanalyst Nancy Sherman explores the psychological and moral burdens borne by soldiers. By illuminating the extent to which wars are fought internally as well as externally, this book expands the national discussion about war and the men and women who fight our nation’s battles. With close-up looks at servicemen and —women preparing for, experiencing, and returning home from war, Sherman probes the psyche of today’s soldiers—examining how they learn to kill and to leave the killing behind. Bringing to light the moral quandaries soldiers face—torture, the thin line between fighters and civilians, and the anguish of killing even in a just war—Sherman bares the souls of our soldiers and the emotional landscape of soldiering. At the heart of the book are interviews with soldiers, from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also from Vietnam and World Wars I and II.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published February 16, 2010
11 people are currently reading
274 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Sherman
19 books41 followersMy introduction to the psyche of the soldier, in a sense, goes back to my father and my childhood. My dad was a WW II vet who never talked about “his” war, though he carried his dogtags on his keychain for 65 years. The war never left him; he took it to the grave; and he always felt that his burden was private. I suspect I always felt that the burden ought to be shared, or at least, that I ought to understand it better.
The chance came when I was appointed the first Distinguished Chair in Ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy in the mid-nineties. I had been an academic in ethics for most of my career, focused on ethics and the emotions, in ancient and modern philosophy. I also had a background and research training in psychoanalysis. For the first time in my life I became a civilian in a military world, and I began to understand better the secret world of my dad. I started teaching and writing about the moral challenges of going to war and returning home, and have been immersed in that research ever since. The issues couldn’t be more urgent for a nation now fighting wars on two fronts for almost a decade.
The Untold War is my best effort at allowing soldiers to open up their hearts and tell their stories. I have listened to those stories with the ear of a philosopher and psychoanalyst, but also with the ear of a daughter, who always felt that she needed to understand more about what her father went through. And I have analyzed those stories in language that steps outside the academy—in terms my dad would have understood. I talk about the visible and invisible wounds of war; posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and resilience; military suicide and its prevention; military honor, guilt, and shame. Military families need to know that we who do not have loved ones serving are doing our best to understand and help those who do.
Officially, I am a distinguished University Professor in Philosophy at Georgetown and an affiliate at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. I also teach some semesters at Georgetown University Law Center. I taught at Yale for seven years before coming to Georgetown.
I spend much of my free time outside. I run most days, swim in an outdoor pool a few times a week, and hike and bike on occasion. Here I take lessons from my grown children: My daughter Kala was a competitive swimmer at Dartmouth, and my son Jonathan has cycled across the country for Habitat for Humanity with a Yale group; he also led cycling tours in Europe. But as my daughter once said to me, “Mom, you’re athletic, but no athlete!” As a family, we love to hike-- in the Northeast, the Rockies, the Lake District in England, and in years past, Corsica. But our local Billy Goat trail, on the Potomac, is also a favorite. I adore dancing—modern dance – something I have been doing since college. Come summer, I turn into an obsessive gardener and on a not-too-buggy D.C. day, I like nothing more than losing myself in the mud. Cooking is also a serious family business. My husband Marshall, also known as “chef Marcel,” is a remarkably good cook.
The chance came when I was appointed the first Distinguished Chair in Ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy in the mid-nineties. I had been an academic in ethics for most of my career, focused on ethics and the emotions, in ancient and modern philosophy. I also had a background and research training in psychoanalysis. For the first time in my life I became a civilian in a military world, and I began to understand better the secret world of my dad. I started teaching and writing about the moral challenges of going to war and returning home, and have been immersed in that research ever since. The issues couldn’t be more urgent for a nation now fighting wars on two fronts for almost a decade.
The Untold War is my best effort at allowing soldiers to open up their hearts and tell their stories. I have listened to those stories with the ear of a philosopher and psychoanalyst, but also with the ear of a daughter, who always felt that she needed to understand more about what her father went through. And I have analyzed those stories in language that steps outside the academy—in terms my dad would have understood. I talk about the visible and invisible wounds of war; posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and resilience; military suicide and its prevention; military honor, guilt, and shame. Military families need to know that we who do not have loved ones serving are doing our best to understand and help those who do.
Officially, I am a distinguished University Professor in Philosophy at Georgetown and an affiliate at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. I also teach some semesters at Georgetown University Law Center. I taught at Yale for seven years before coming to Georgetown.
I spend much of my free time outside. I run most days, swim in an outdoor pool a few times a week, and hike and bike on occasion. Here I take lessons from my grown children: My daughter Kala was a competitive swimmer at Dartmouth, and my son Jonathan has cycled across the country for Habitat for Humanity with a Yale group; he also led cycling tours in Europe. But as my daughter once said to me, “Mom, you’re athletic, but no athlete!” As a family, we love to hike-- in the Northeast, the Rockies, the Lake District in England, and in years past, Corsica. But our local Billy Goat trail, on the Potomac, is also a favorite. I adore dancing—modern dance – something I have been doing since college. Come summer, I turn into an obsessive gardener and on a not-too-buggy D.C. day, I like nothing more than losing myself in the mud. Cooking is also a serious family business. My husband Marshall, also known as “chef Marcel,” is a remarkably good cook.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 12, 2011
I read this on veterans day which was a great way to celebrate the day. In some ways I think this book should be required reading in the US, or at least some reading on the moral and ethical implications of being a soldier and relying on a volunteer army to fight out wars. Oddly, the more I read about the huge burden borne by the armed forces, the more I support a mandatory draft. It just bothers me deeply that so many war profiteers pushed us into a war on false pretenses that would be fought by other men and women.
The book intersperses philosophical investigations into fighting and war with stories from soldiers who fought in the past century (WWII to Afghanistan with some WWI writing). Philosophically it relies heavily on Greek philosophers since they examined war and morality a great deal, especially the stoics. What I found most refreshing was that this book didn't medicalize the suffering of soldiers, which I think people try to do when they discuss PTSD. Instead it treated them as moral actors with agency who are forced to live with horrors both visceral and mental, and must integrate those thoughts and experiences into who they are as people in their civilian lives. It is difficult, and a lot to ask people, and for it they have often been treated quite poorly.
I highly recommend everyone read this.
The book intersperses philosophical investigations into fighting and war with stories from soldiers who fought in the past century (WWII to Afghanistan with some WWI writing). Philosophically it relies heavily on Greek philosophers since they examined war and morality a great deal, especially the stoics. What I found most refreshing was that this book didn't medicalize the suffering of soldiers, which I think people try to do when they discuss PTSD. Instead it treated them as moral actors with agency who are forced to live with horrors both visceral and mental, and must integrate those thoughts and experiences into who they are as people in their civilian lives. It is difficult, and a lot to ask people, and for it they have often been treated quite poorly.
I highly recommend everyone read this.
April 14, 2017
This book looks at the psychological trauma of war from a philosophical or moral point of view, rather than a medical one. This was not what I thought it would be about, but it was a different approach to the issue and quite refreshing. On reflection, I suppose the reference to souls in the subtitle should have tipped me off. Sherman discusses the difference between civilian and military attitudes and how the transition between the two (both ways) can have negative emotional impact, as well as discussing the way that different philosophical doctrines can help protect or increase the damage. What this book does not do is talk specifically and in depth about PTSD, as I had thought it would.
Sherman assumes familiarity with philosophical schools of thought, so it can be a little confusing if you don't know the exact difference between, for example, Aristotelian and Stoic approaches. It is still a very interesting book, and because of the range of topics covered it ended up being research for two characters, not just the one I had originally had in mind.
Sherman assumes familiarity with philosophical schools of thought, so it can be a little confusing if you don't know the exact difference between, for example, Aristotelian and Stoic approaches. It is still a very interesting book, and because of the range of topics covered it ended up being research for two characters, not just the one I had originally had in mind.
Want to read
October 7, 2010Saw Nancy Sherman interviewed tonight - very impressed. This book needs to be read. There are some video's of her talks about War - titles below, you can watch the full interview or just segments..
Full Interview 41:45
The Moral Burden of Dog Tags 3:40
How War Changes, and How It Doesn’t 3:42
Soldiers Speak About the Unspeakable 6:28
The Hidden Emotional Cost of War 3:09
How We Can Really Support Our Troops 6:00
What’s Fair in War 8:49
Preventing Another Abu Ghraib 5:18
We Can Still Learn From Aristotle 4:06
We’re So Plugged In, “We’re About to Implode”
Link here.
http://bigthink.com/nancysherman
Full Interview 41:45
The Moral Burden of Dog Tags 3:40
How War Changes, and How It Doesn’t 3:42
Soldiers Speak About the Unspeakable 6:28
The Hidden Emotional Cost of War 3:09
How We Can Really Support Our Troops 6:00
What’s Fair in War 8:49
Preventing Another Abu Ghraib 5:18
We Can Still Learn From Aristotle 4:06
We’re So Plugged In, “We’re About to Implode”
Link here.
http://bigthink.com/nancysherman
June 25, 2010
This is a very good book about the cost of war on those in the military services. It explores the psychological trauma often faced by soldiers and the physical costs as well. I found it very informative and well written. It is not light reading, but a serious tome.
July 30, 2024
Awesome book interweaving military psychology and stoic philosophy that illustrates the deep psychological toll serving in the military can take. While the author never uses the phrase moral injury, the book definitely focuses on the psychological and spiritual suffering that one experienced with moral injury. While clear and concise, this is definitely not a light-hearted read, but I found it super helpful in understanding what some of my patients experience.
August 21, 2017
Good read, though rather academic in the constant-referencing to Stoics and such. I know that I would have enjoyed it more, if I had a more in-depth knowledge of ancient Greek thought, and of said Stoics. Though being in the military did help a bit, and it was a nice read nonetheless. I would recommend it to anyone seeking to understand military culture and life.
August 19, 2017
Only got 74 pgs into this book, as really struggled with the train of thought of the writter.
March 17, 2018
Very interesting. Academic so hard to slog through at times.
Want to read
April 17, 2010Reviews
Booklist Reviews
Philosopher and psychoanalyst Sherman brings both perspectives when listening to soldiers sort out their feelings about war, the killing, reintegration into society, and survivor guilt. Sherman focuses on interviews with 40 soldiers—from the Vietnam era through the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—at various points in their military careers and expands her examination to the impact of war on the families of soldiers. Referring to philosophers from Aristotle to Seneca to Epictetus, she explores the moral dilemma of justifying killing in war, struggles with the morality of some wars, the political obfuscation for war, denigration of the enemy, torture of prisoners, the morality of interrogators, and the worries of being held prisoner. On a broader level, Sherman explores the practical need to compartmentalize military and civilian life but the moral need not to compartmentalize so much that humanity is lost. Sherman, who has worked with the military on trauma and ethics issues, offers penetrating portraits of the individual struggles of soldiers and profound insights on aspects of war that civilians rarely consider.
Kirkus Reviews
Cogent, scholarly essays on moral conflicts soldiers have faced throughout history but especially today.Philosopher, psychoanalyst and ethicist Sherman (Philosophy and Ethics/Georgetown Univ.; Stoic Warriors: The Ancient Philosophy Behind the Military Mind, 2005, etc.) marshals all three specialties to explore a subject often passed over by traditional philosophers, who focused narrowly on the justice of going to war, and contemporary experts, who emphasize its psychiatric trauma. The author emphasizes that soldiering is less a career than an identity, different from but never detached from civilian life. Military leaders throughout history have worked hard to inspire a warrior attitude in their troops, who rarely hesitate to display intense comradeship and eagerness to fight. Sherman adds that, until the Vietnam War, experts ignored the painful moral burden soldiers feel when exposed to battle, a feeling they often bring back to civilian life and never escape. Seeing comrades die through no fault of their own can trigger a persistent "survivor's guilt" as soldiers struggle to recognize that luck, not skill or teamwork, has preserved them intact. Despite the universal acceptance of post-traumatic stress disorder, which has always existed, the Pentagon refuses to grant victims a Purple Heart, so many still consider PTSD a shameful affliction. According to the author, one culprit is stoicism, an ancient philosophy that, in the oversimplified version popular among officers, teaches that a truly wise man is indifferent to suffering. Sherman fills her academic study with interviews, anecdotes and historical examples in an often successful effort to make it accessible to general readers.A dense but ultimately illuminating inquiry into the psyche of our fighting men and women.Agent: Jim Levine/Levine Greenberg Literary Agency Copyright Kirkus 2009 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.
Library Journal Reviews
Georgetown professor Sherman, who held the first chair in ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy, focuses the skills—and specialized language—of both philosopher and psychoanalyst on exploring the moral burdens carried by soldiers, the moral qualms in being trained to kill, and the effects of killing even in a just war. Recommended for advanced study.
[Page 87:]. Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
from the library computer:
At a time when suicide rates among veterans is increasing sharply, this empathic examination of "the moral weight that soldiers carry on their shoulders" is essential reading. Sherman, a philosopher, ethicist, and psychoanalyst at Georgetown University, conducted extensive interviews with around 40 soldiers, in various stages of their careers, veterans of both the Iraq War and earlier conflicts. Through nuanced exploration of their powerful stories, Sherman makes the familiar case that soldiering becomes an identity not easily left behind when one returns to civilian life. The challenge is finding a moral self able to sustain the sensibilities of both the civilian and the warrior. That is difficult in cultures where the experiences of war and peace are divergent. The central desire and need for a soldier is to be strong. Anger, fear, revenge, guilt—these are also standard issue. How do men judge themselves, or contemplate being judged, for what they do and see? Experiencing war, Sherman says, requires compartmentalization, displacement, deferral until "soldiers find the safety and trust needed to express personal doubts and torments." Sherman perceptively and accurately concludes that this cannot be "a private burden banned... from families and communities." Photos. (Mar.)
[Page 107:]. Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
Booklist Reviews
Philosopher and psychoanalyst Sherman brings both perspectives when listening to soldiers sort out their feelings about war, the killing, reintegration into society, and survivor guilt. Sherman focuses on interviews with 40 soldiers—from the Vietnam era through the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—at various points in their military careers and expands her examination to the impact of war on the families of soldiers. Referring to philosophers from Aristotle to Seneca to Epictetus, she explores the moral dilemma of justifying killing in war, struggles with the morality of some wars, the political obfuscation for war, denigration of the enemy, torture of prisoners, the morality of interrogators, and the worries of being held prisoner. On a broader level, Sherman explores the practical need to compartmentalize military and civilian life but the moral need not to compartmentalize so much that humanity is lost. Sherman, who has worked with the military on trauma and ethics issues, offers penetrating portraits of the individual struggles of soldiers and profound insights on aspects of war that civilians rarely consider.
Kirkus Reviews
Cogent, scholarly essays on moral conflicts soldiers have faced throughout history but especially today.Philosopher, psychoanalyst and ethicist Sherman (Philosophy and Ethics/Georgetown Univ.; Stoic Warriors: The Ancient Philosophy Behind the Military Mind, 2005, etc.) marshals all three specialties to explore a subject often passed over by traditional philosophers, who focused narrowly on the justice of going to war, and contemporary experts, who emphasize its psychiatric trauma. The author emphasizes that soldiering is less a career than an identity, different from but never detached from civilian life. Military leaders throughout history have worked hard to inspire a warrior attitude in their troops, who rarely hesitate to display intense comradeship and eagerness to fight. Sherman adds that, until the Vietnam War, experts ignored the painful moral burden soldiers feel when exposed to battle, a feeling they often bring back to civilian life and never escape. Seeing comrades die through no fault of their own can trigger a persistent "survivor's guilt" as soldiers struggle to recognize that luck, not skill or teamwork, has preserved them intact. Despite the universal acceptance of post-traumatic stress disorder, which has always existed, the Pentagon refuses to grant victims a Purple Heart, so many still consider PTSD a shameful affliction. According to the author, one culprit is stoicism, an ancient philosophy that, in the oversimplified version popular among officers, teaches that a truly wise man is indifferent to suffering. Sherman fills her academic study with interviews, anecdotes and historical examples in an often successful effort to make it accessible to general readers.A dense but ultimately illuminating inquiry into the psyche of our fighting men and women.Agent: Jim Levine/Levine Greenberg Literary Agency Copyright Kirkus 2009 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.
Library Journal Reviews
Georgetown professor Sherman, who held the first chair in ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy, focuses the skills—and specialized language—of both philosopher and psychoanalyst on exploring the moral burdens carried by soldiers, the moral qualms in being trained to kill, and the effects of killing even in a just war. Recommended for advanced study.
[Page 87:]. Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
from the library computer:
At a time when suicide rates among veterans is increasing sharply, this empathic examination of "the moral weight that soldiers carry on their shoulders" is essential reading. Sherman, a philosopher, ethicist, and psychoanalyst at Georgetown University, conducted extensive interviews with around 40 soldiers, in various stages of their careers, veterans of both the Iraq War and earlier conflicts. Through nuanced exploration of their powerful stories, Sherman makes the familiar case that soldiering becomes an identity not easily left behind when one returns to civilian life. The challenge is finding a moral self able to sustain the sensibilities of both the civilian and the warrior. That is difficult in cultures where the experiences of war and peace are divergent. The central desire and need for a soldier is to be strong. Anger, fear, revenge, guilt—these are also standard issue. How do men judge themselves, or contemplate being judged, for what they do and see? Experiencing war, Sherman says, requires compartmentalization, displacement, deferral until "soldiers find the safety and trust needed to express personal doubts and torments." Sherman perceptively and accurately concludes that this cannot be "a private burden banned... from families and communities." Photos. (Mar.)
[Page 107:]. Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
December 27, 2013
This is a great book of easy-to-read philosophy, most of it centered on the ideals of Stoicism that fuel much of the U.S. military's mentality of training soldiers for war. It also examines the shortcomings of Stoicism, especially in dealing with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). This book points out that PTSD should not be called a "disorder" but a "wound"-- because what these soldiers with PTSD deal with is a permanent psychological condition that is like having (what I think of as) mental shrapnel forever embedded in their brains. The street term for PTSD is "the Iron Monkey" which is another of the many cool factoids I picked up from this book. Recommended! :)
April 10, 2012
Although the personal accounts of soldiers trying to recover emotionally from war are heart-wrenching, those stories almost seem to be relegated to anecdotes. For me, this book was too much about Sherman's psychoanalytic theories (and her recommendation of Stoicism) to be as impactful as I expected.
October 18, 2011
Very interesting. I listened to this one and I think I would like to read it again more analytically.
May 23, 2013
A must read.
August 20, 2013
A really good book about what it's like inside the mind of a veteran. I really think more people should read this book before jumping to conclusions about veterans returning from war.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews