The Duke of Wellington lamented after Waterloo that 'next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained'. For soldiers, both defeat and victory entail duty, disfigurement and death.

In this unique history of the soldier, primarily from the Napoleonic Wars to the global war on terror, Darren Moore follows the soldier from basic training to discharge or death. He reveals how soldiers confront the possibility of being mutilated or killed; the mental and social conditioning that enables them to kill in battle; and the anguish of killing your comrades, whether through the death penalty or as a result of friendly fire. The book also examines the relationship between love, sex and war and reveals the 'trial by media' faced by modern soldiers. Drawing upon hundreds of narrative accounts of warfare written by combatants from the UK, France, the USA, Canada, Japan, Italy, New Zealand, Russia, Australia, Israel and Germany and in conflicts as diverse as Vietnam and Napoleon's march on Moscow, Darren Moore has written a compelling tribute to the soldier that is both topical and timeless.