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Soldiers
- Great Stories of War and Peace
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, Ric Jerrom
- Length: 24 hrs and 14 mins
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Soldiers
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Summary
Soldiers is a very personal gathering of sparkling, gripping tales by many writers, about men and women who have borne arms, reflecting bestselling historian Max Hastings’s lifetime of studying war. It rings the changes through the centuries, between the heroic, tragic and comic; the famous and the humble. The nearly 350 stories illustrate vividly what it is like to fight in wars, to live and die as a warrior, from Greek and Roman times through to recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Here you will meet Jewish heroes of the Bible, Rome’s captain of the gate, Queen Boudicca, Joan of Arc, Cromwell, Wellington, Napoleon’s marshals, Ulysses S. Grant, George S. Patton and the modern SAS. There are tales of great writers who served in uniform including Cobbett and Tolstoy, Edward Gibbon and Siegfried Sassoon, Marcel Proust and Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell and George MacDonald Fraser. Here are also stories of the female ‘abosi’ fighters of Dahomey and heroic ambulance drivers of World War I, together with the new-age women soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The stories reflect a change of mood towards warfare through the ages: though nations and movements continue to inflict terrible violence upon each other, most of humankind has retreated from the old notion of war as a sport or pastime, to acknowledge it as the supreme tragedy.
This is a book to inspire in turn fascination, excitement, horror, amazement, occasionally laughter. Max Hastings mingles respect for the courage of those who fight with compassion for those who become their victims, above all civilians, and especially in the twenty-first century, which some are already calling ‘the Post-Heroic Age’.
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Critic reviews
‘[Stories] of breathtaking derring-do … A gripping new collection from Max Hastings that puts you at the heart of the battle … In his powerful new book, Soldiers: Great Stories Of War And Peace, he has collected first-person accounts that illustrate in searing detail and immediacy all the violence, grief, pathos, black humour and courage of conflict. In these compelling extracts, a young officer agonises over his decision to leave a dying comrade, a badly wounded Gurkha gets back into battle, and a legendary field marshal is executed by his own side’
Daily Mail
‘These accounts show the reality of military life … A pointillist portrait of enthralling sensitivity … stories tumble from the pages of this book like gems from a pirate’s chest … The anecdotes about female soldiers in this book are fascinating’
Gerard DeGroot, The Times
‘An unmissable read … A brilliant, wide-ranging anthology … The book ambly proves Max Hastings’s contention that “all generalisations about soldiers fail” and that “they come in as many sorts and conditions as does the rest of humanity” … The sheer variety of voices for which Hastings has found room is impressive … The most famous names of military history, from Julius Caesar to Erwin Rommel, have their places, yet some of the most compelling tales are those of ordinary, often reluctant warriors. For all those who share Hastings’s “fascination with wars and those who have fought through the ages”, Soldiers is an unmissable collection’
Sunday Times
‘A delightful book, which can be dipped into anywhere and which will provide enormous enjoyment to all those who are interested in how people react to war’
Aspects of History
‘A fascinating collection of military stories … The sort of book that can be picked up at intervals … [but] once tasted, is hard to put down’
Washington Post
What listeners say about Soldiers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Allan McInnes
- 14-09-22
A Good Idea
A plethora of tales to understand what soldiers have to endure throughout so many centuries.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- The king David
- 05-03-23
Big hopes, that were dashed.
I know Max’s previous works and I like his knowledge and style. Not this time unfortunately. Whilst there were some interesting anecdotes and history, the majority was very average.
The format of the audio book was poor and it’s usability was I’ll thought through.
With thousand of years of war, poetry and conflict recorded - there must be more insightful script than this.
Not enough modern content.
He is still clever and articulate, just not to the standard I have become accustomed.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Red
- 05-02-22
Oh. Is it me or…
Now, normally MH’s audiobooks are first class… but some how the quality control ball seems to have been dropped on the production! No chapters! End credits are 19hrs long (main content) audio louder during MH chapter intros that narrations… shocker.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Michael
- 11-09-22
Content great, set rubbish
The content is good and, even though I do not agree with Max Hastings in some historical interpretation I enjoy it.
Problem is that I specifically bought this to listen to short individual chapters, however Audible have messed up the settings and all the main content is in one single "chapter" of some 19 hours.
Will have to return.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Martyn S Underhill
- 09-07-24
Bizarre
I love this author, however this book is the oddest thing, I tried and tried and gave up. It is a motley collection of uninteresting stories!
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