Rating: 
Summary: Killing Made Easy - All Too Easy
Review: This book is no less than the anatomy of killing, as told by a compassionate West Point military psychologist, who has spoken with and psychoanalized hundreds of Vets. The book is straight forward, well-researched, and filled with interesting personal anecdotes, as well as many tantelizing tid bits from the anals of military history. More than anything, the book makes a good point: Killing has become too easy. Indeed, as Grossman shows us, the threshold for killing both in and outside of the military machine has been lowered considerably. For a small but rising number of people living inside the Holleywood/video game Western media machine, killing has become a natural, psychologically conditioned response, through inundation and repetition. If you finish the book all the way to the end - "Killing In America: What Are We Doing to Our Children?" - you will realize that book is nothing less than a wake-up call. I consider myself a democratic progressive, with extreme views on personal freedom and civil liberty, but the level of violence that we have come to live with and accept (unconsciously) in the media and society in general is far too much for our fragile psyches. Although by no means the last word on the subject, this book is an important step in understanding the rash of school shootings now plaguing America and other highly industrialized Western media-saturated environments around the world.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Thought Provoking
Review: I heard this author on the radio speaking about why teens are turning into killers. It was such a fascinating talk that I had to buy his book. The book is fascinating and very readable. I was not bored one second while reading this book. The author talks about the history of war, how we convince our soldiers to kill others and why they don't kill. Basically he talks about how we train them through repetition and practice and dummy practices. The soldiers work through shooting others by practicing on video games, watching movies, practicing with dummies. Eventually killing seems natural. This is a great book that explains very clearly why video games and violent movies are not acceptable and really shouldn't have a place in general society. I have some very strong thoughts on this now and it is due in a large part to this book. Excellent. Well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Book
Review: A great book on a neglected part of war and life. This book provides insight into the human man that can be applied to far more than just killing. A must read for every NCO in a combat MOS.
Rating:
Summary: At last, readable insight
Review: LTC Grossman has put together a researched, but readable, insight into the effects upon our military men (and women) of killing in combat. If such a work had been generally available thirty or thirty-five years ago, fewer Vietnam veterans would have been scarred by their experiences.
As a veteran and retired officer, I highly recommend this book for military and civilian leaders and those mental health professionals who treat current and former service members.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, But Perhaps Too Optimistic
Review: By "optimistic" I mean that LTC Grossman seems to be positing too sunny a portrait of human nature (if there is such a thing).
The whole idea here is that human beings are naturally revolted by the idea of killing another person, and that armies have traditionally had a rough time getting their soldiers to overcome this innate resistance to killing in battle. His research shows that firing rates for the U.S. forces in 20th century wars have been astonishingly low--most soldiers either don't fire when ordered to, or they miss deliberately. The military has steadily perfected de-sensitizing techniques in its training (witness the rise in firing rates during Vietnam) since WWII. And what are the consequences, and the moral/ethical implications, for the society that sponsors such a regimen? An increase in violent behavior and the prevalance of callous attitudes toward life? This, in a nutshell, is the real subject of LTC Grossman's book. Despite the optimistic assumptions about human nature (which go against the grain of a formidable intellectual tradition, from John Hobbes to Joseph Conrad), LTC Grossman has produced a very interesting and highly readable (for layman like myself) book, and is to be commended (given his professional background) for tackling some difficult subjects and offering some highly unorthodox conclusions.
Rating:
Summary: The Sad and Bitter Truth
Review: I read this book through quite thoroughly and found it to be right on the money in regard to combat and PTSD. As a combat veteran of Vietnam and a person who daily struggles with the affects of PTSD, I can vouch for the calamity that is the military in war. There are no 'Rambo' or 'Die Hard' type characters in the real world. If there were, their impulsive machismo would find them dead in a matter of hours. The conditioning I received in Marine Boot Camp at PI helped prepare me for the structure necessary in engaging the enemy and surviving. It did nothing for the personal psychological trauma that was the 'natural' aftermath of the killing and the dying. PTSD is a natural reaction to an unnatural situation. Heavy combat garners...heavy symptoms. Plain and simple.
Rating:
Summary: on killing
Review: LTC Grossman may not have killed a person but he can express the feelings of thoses who did. The Reader will find himself in many of the situations discribed throughout the book. From doing the killing, the eye lock with face to face of the VC, to getting sick, to include guilt is covered. The combat training or operative conditioning is needed to do the job. The plane trip home was long but, not long enough for recovery. EMTs have a debriefing after major trauma, so should soldiers.
I would use this book for teaching prior to and after battles.
This book leads you right to "What Are We Doing to Our Children"
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting look into the history of killing in combat
Review: I am a psychology student and I have an interest in violence and aggression. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman is a West Point Psychology Professor and an Army Ranger, and he definitely knows his material. He was an expert witness and a consultant during the Timothy McVeigh trial for the Oklahoma City federal building bombing. The book progresses though the history of modern warfare and takes a look at how soldiers have been becomming better, or more proficient, at killing. There are chilling anecdotes about combat killing which provide a unique perspective into the mind of the soldier. This is a great read for military personnel, students of the social sciences, or anyone interested in the history of killing in combat situations. I particularly found it interesting in that it discussed how soldiers are trained to kill with efficiency. This is not only an interesting book, but an educational one.
Rating:
Summary: On Killing:
Review: I have heard the author speak and have read the book. The book may not be for everyone it does deal with the killing of other human beings, but in the case of soldiers or police officers the book should be a must read. I am a police firearms and use of force instructor and the research that Col.Grossman has done on killing and training to kill has improved the probablity that the officers I train will survive a lethal encounter. As a martial arts instructor I also use information obtained from the authors research as it relates to self-defense training. I prefer not to teach "paper tiger" black belts. The mind not only the body must be trained to deal with a life or death situation. The "Warrior Spirit" is what I train my students about and this book is mandatory for them to read.
Rating:
Summary: Why DON'T more people kill?
Review: One of the most valuable contributions this book makes is to look at why people DON'T kill. Tragic killing by children (such as a child smothering his little sibling) and adults (such as the Oklahoma City bombing) does occur, but the amazing thing is that it is incredibly rare. The murder rate in the US (a singularly violent society) is approximately 5 per 100,000 per year. That means that, of all the hundreds of millions of American adults and children, interacting with hundreds of millions of fellow citizens, in very stressful times, only .005% were able to bring themselves to kill. In most other cultures and societies around the world, that number is even lower. Killing by young children is incredibly rare. Far, far less than the .005% murder rate in the general population. Why? It is so very, very easy for a 4-year-old to smother their 6-month old little brother, and yet it IS so rare. Why? Why doesn't the biggest kitten or puppy kill all the smaller, helpless members of its litter so that it has more access to mother's milk? Why don't we have to keep watch every second of the day lest our toddlers kill their little infant sisters and brothers? Conrad Lorenz, in his book, "On Aggression" says that MOST healthy members of MOST species have an inbred resistance to killing their own kind. This book (On Killing) contributes to our understanding of that resistance in humans, the limitations of that resistance, and the clever mechanisms that humans have developed to overcome that resistance. Creatures of most species do not kill their smaller siblings in the litter and the nest. Animals with antlers and horns slam together in a relatively harmless head-to-head fashion, and piranha fight their own kind with flicks of the tail, but against any other species these creatures unleash their horns and teeth without restraint. Rattlesnakes will sink their fangs into anything and everything, but they wrestle each other. Any species that did not have this restraint exist for only a few generations. Sociopaths, by definition do not have any feeling of "empathy" for their fellow humans. But they alone cannot account for all human killing. If it is so hard for us to kill each other, then why have we been so good at filling up military cemeteries over the years? Man cannot readily fly, but we have this brain that learned to overcome this limitation and made it possible for us to fly. Man may not be able to readily kill his fell man, but we have turned the human brain with great diligence to overcome this "limitation." What this book is about, is how "healthy" people can be manipulated, or "enabled" to kill. The author spends a whole chapter addressing killing and atrocities, and another whole chapter addressing the "anatomy of killing," which looks at the variables of groups, leaders, distance, and many, many others factors which can provide "psychological" leverage to "tip the balance," in killing. The author devotes one entire chapter to the role of distance. McVeigh became the largest mass killer in American history by leaving a bomb and walking away (thus providing psychological and physical "distance"), but if he had to personally stab all those victims to death (assuming that it was physically possible), he almost certainly could not have done so. As much as anything, the whole book was dedicated to answering one vital, central question: what restrains and enables killing. And this book answers that question better than any other work in existence. That is why it is being used as required reading in courses at West Point and the US Air Force Academy, and "peace studies" programs in Mennonite and Quaker colleges. I commend the book to your attention. It makes a significant contribution to our understanding in this vital area.
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