On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society

by Dave Grossman

War has always interested me; not war in the sense of maneuvers devised by great generals…but the reality of war, the actual killing. I was more interested to know in what way and under the influence of what feelings one soldier kills another than to know how the armies were arranged at Austerlitz and Borodino. —Leo Tolstoy