Military service can shatter or give meaning to lives–it is rarely a neutral ­encounter—and it has resulted in a rich outpouring of personal testimony from the men and women who have literally placed their lives on the line. “A 'real' love letter to our military [that] will prove enlightening, even galvanizing” ( ), tells the captivating narratives of common soldiers, sampled from over three centuries of letters, diaries, and memoirs as well as audio recordings, films, and blogs. The often dramatic, sometimes very raw, and always richly textured first–person accounts collected in this book cover a wide range of perspectives, from ardent patriots to disillusioned cynics, barely literate farm boys to urbane college graduates, scions of founding families to recent immigrants, and women disguising themselves as men in order to serve their country to African Americans fighting for their freedom through military service. Praised as “compact and complete” ( ), “an excellent educational tool” ( ), and “a useful, unsettling, ­bottom–up history of America's wars that emphasizes the soldiers' mistreatment, suffering, and injustice” ( has already become a major new touchstone for our understanding of American military service.