The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers

The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers
by Nancy Sherman

Book Description
Publication Date: September 26, 2011

The Untold War draws on revealing interviews with servicemen and -women to offer keen psychological and philosophical insights into the experience of being a soldier. Bringing to light the ethical quandaries that soldiers face—torture, the thin line between fighters and civilians, and the anguish of killing even in a just war—Nancy Sherman opens our eyes to the fact that wars are fought internally as well as externally, enabling us to understand the emotional tolls that are so often overlooked.

Editorial 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. --Vanessa Bush --This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.

Review

No ordinary reflection on war . . . a powerful and moving reminder of war's long-term consequences and the cost to soldiers and society. (America )

For anyone seeking to understand 'the inner war' soldiers fight on the battlefield and at home, Nancy Sherman's book brilliantly maps soldiers' dark inner landscapes. (Boston Globe )

Starred Review. 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. (Publishers Weekly )

Humaniz[es] soldiers by enabling us to see them as individuals with distinct, particular responses to psychological and physical wounds. (The New York Times )