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Title details for Why Marines Fight by James Brady - Available

Why Marines Fight

by James Brady
Michael Prichard
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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As the war in Iraq continues, the idea of being a soldier in wartime is of interest to many Americans. Why Marines Fight by James Brady is a ruthlessly candid book told in the words of U.S. Marines themselves, who answer provocative questions about what drives them to fight and why so competently and ferociously.


For more than two centuries, U.S. Marines have been among the world's fiercest and most admired of warriors. This pounding look into the U.S. Marines is magnificent in scope and is written by an author whom some marines consider to be the unofficial poet laureate of their corps. Brady interviews combat marines from wars ranging from World War II to Iraq and Afghanistan, and records their responses in their own unique and powerful voices. These he crafts into an authentically American story of a country at war as seen throught he eyes of its warriors. Americans who experience Brady's chronicle of this part of a soldier's life and its lasting effect may find it impossible to forget.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 13, 2007

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400125234
      • File size: 345304 KB
      • Duration: 11:59:22

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The author attempts to answer the title's rhetorical question by interviewing dozens of U.S. Marines, who recall their experiences in battles from WWII to Iraq II. The reasons to fight span a large spectrum: family tradition, a search for adventure, peer pressure to join up, the need to be tested, and the fulfillment of a childhood fantasy. Narrator Michael Prichard reads with an avuncular and resonant style, which he fills with nuance and expression to create a conversational experience. However, his technique of using the same voice for everyone makes it a supreme challenge for listeners to identify whose words they're listening to. Prichard must pronounce many foreign words and places; he handles all of them as though they were his native language. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 22, 2007
      The reasons are almost as numerous as the Marine combat veterans quoted and profiled in this engaging collection of reminiscences. Many cite the training and discipline drilled into recruits and the determination not to let down one’s buddies. Others are motivated by vengeance after a friend is killed. Gen. Smedley Butler, after a career invading banana republics in the early 20th century, opines that he fought mainly as “a gangster for Capitalism.” Some fight for the thrill of it (“the heavy machine gun made you feel like no one could touch you”), and some fight out of the sheer cussedness personified by Sgt. Dan Daley, who shouted, “Come on, you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?” as he led his men against the Germans in France in 1918. Parade columnist Brady (The Coldest War), a Korean War Marine vet, sketches vivid thumbnails of his interlocutors and sets the right leatherneck vibe—sympathetic, irreverent, comradely—to draw them out. Some tales meander; this is very much a meeting of old (and a few young) soldiers catching up and telling war stories in a glow of nostalgia. Still, Brady assembles from them an unusually personal and revealing collage of the nation in arms.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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