Soldiers' Lives Through History

Beginning with the brutal Sumerian and Assyrian armies of ancient Iraq and ending with the men and women of the military of the early 21st century, this series shows what life was and is like for soldiers. The weapons and technology change, culture changes, but human physical and psychological needs and fears do not. How did soldiers become specialists, and how were permanent standing armies developed? What was it like to march with Julius Caesar in Gaul or fight the Goths in the Balkans? What was it like to conduct a siege in medieval times? How did the business of feeding and clothing armies advance over time? How did the horrendous health conditions on war fields in teh 19th and early 20th centuries contribute to improvements in modern medicine? What was it like to shiver in a frozen Belgian wood in 1944, as German Tiger tanks rumbled toward your foxhole? How do soldiers master high tech weaponry, yet protect themselves from the most primative improvised explosive device? This lively and comprehensive set reveals, ultimately, what kinds of societies produced these soldiers and their lives and how the soldiers in turn shaped their societies.