Grunts:

Inside the American Infantry Combat Experience, World War II Through Iraq

Synopsis

For centuries of warfare—regardless of culture, creed, or country— there has always been one group of warriors continually in the thick of battle who often are the most unsung: the infantry.

Now, in an era of unmanned drone aircraft, renowned military historian John C. McManus brings us GRUNTS: Inside the American Infantry Combat Experience, World War II Through Iraq (NAL Caliber Hardcover Original; August 3, 2010; 978-0451227904; $25.95), showing how instrumental “foot soldiers” are to victory. In this accessible account of the American infantry experience, McManus urgently conveys the infantryman’s importance in winning wars to this day.

Chronologically covering the past six decades of warfare, McManus examines ten critical battles: from World War II, to Vietnam, to the Gulf War, up to today’s war in Iraq. As the author points out, in nearly every case in recent history it is the ground soldiers, the “grunts,” who prove to be the difference between victory and defeat. Based on years of research and interviews with veterans, GRUNTS is a fascinating blend of narrative and analysis, as well as a thought-provoking call for support for the American infantryman from one of the best-respected American military historians writing today, John C. McManus.

“From Banzai charges on Pacific Islands to bombs in the streets of Baghdad, Grunts plunges us into the hellish, heroic world of the American Infantryman. This powerful book drives home the unfiltered ferocity of combat—and both the comradeship and loneliness of the soldier or Marine who pays the butcher’s bill for plans concocted by men he’ll never meet. When all of the new technologies have been exhausted, the infantryman’s timeless lot is still to face death at close quarters. Author John C. McManus makes it shatteringly real, and Grunts is hypnotic history writing: honest, savage, heartbreaking and, ultimately, inspiring.”—Ralph Peters, Fox News Strategic Analyst and author of The War After Armageddon

“A superbly written, highly fitting tribute to the courage and sacrifice of the unsung heroes who have shouldered the main burden of horrific combat—and suffered the lion’s share of casualties—while fighting America’s wars. McManus captures—with gritty, ‘muddy boot’ authenticity—the horrors of the real war fought by America’s front-line soldiers and Marines. Reading Grunts is the closest you will get to experiencing actual infantry combat without getting shot at. Armchair General gives McManus’s ‘must read’ book five stars, our highest rating.”—Colonel Jerry D. Morelock, PhD, U.S. Army, (Ret.), and Editor in Chief of Armchair General

“A superb book—an American equivalent to John Keegan’s The Face of Battle. I sincerely believe that Grunts is destined to be a classic....It’s a powerful look into the hearts and minds of the American ‘grunt,’ the infantryman, the Marine, the front-line warrior who exists at the crux of war and is the true heart and soul of warfare.”—Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, U.S. Army (Ret.), Author of On Killing and On Combat

“John C. McManus’s Grunts contains some of the most vivid accounts of close combat ever recorded in literature. The reader has the sense of being actually present in the battles. His descriptions show precise details of combat at the closest personal levels and with absolute authenticity.”—Bevin Alexander, Combat Historian in the Korean War and Author of Inside the Nazi War Machine

“A literary and historical achievement of the highest order, Grunts illuminates the experience of the American GI better than any book I have read in years. Using battles such as Peleliu and Fallujah, John McManus brilliantly proves, using the participants’ own words, that the American warrior, not technology, wins wars.”—Patrick K. O’Donnell, Author of Give Me Tomorrow

“McManus examines war at the tactical level, at the edge of the battlefield where the fighting and dying take place, where the courage or cowardice of an individual or squad determines the ownership of a beachhead, or a hill-top, or an entire city. Few historians venture to tell the stories of the men at the edge of the battlefield…. Too frequently historians take humanity out of war. McManus skillfully puts man back into the history of America’s recent wars, reminding us that man is still the determining factor.”—Adrian R. Lewis, Professor, University of Kansas