{"id":113056,"date":"2020-05-25T10:13:39","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T15:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=113056"},"modified":"2026-09-12T20:48:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T01:48:52","slug":"how-soldiers-die-in-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/how-soldiers-die-in-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #613: How Soldiers Die in Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>War is about many things: glory, violence, courage, destruction. But at its heart is death. Each side in a conflict tries to kill as many of the enemy as possible, while avoiding being killed themselves.<\/p>\n<p>The way these deaths have played out over thousands of years of warfare has changed not simply based on the way martial technology has changed, but also on the way that the psychological and cultural pressures that have led societies and individual men to fight have changed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>My guest today, Michael Stephenson, is a military historian who explores these evolutions in his book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B006JHKSS2\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B006JHKSS2&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><em>The Last Full Measure: How Soldiers Die in Battle<\/em><\/a>. Today Michael and I discuss the forces that led soldiers to their fate over the centuries, from advancements in weaponry to the expectations of social class. At the beginning of our conversation Michael discusses why he wanted to write this book, and the balance he had to walk in trying to describe the reality of death on the battlefield, without conveying those details in a sensationalistic or titillating manner. We then trace the history of death in war, beginning with its primitive beginnings and working our way to the modern day. Along the way we discuss how gunpowder changed the nature of warfare, the effect that distance has on how heroic a confrontation seems, why artillery is particularly terrifying, what motivates soldiers to fight, and much more.<\/p>\n<p>This is a surprisingly enlightening and humane look at an oft glossed over aspect of the human experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>War is about many things: glory, violence, courage, destruction. But at its heart is death. Each side in a conflict tries to kill as many of the enemy as possible, while avoiding being killed themselves. The way these deaths have played out over thousands of years of warfare has changed not simply based on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42376,42385,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-history","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/613-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/613-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/613-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/613-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/613-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Soldiers Die In Battle | Art of Manliness Podcast<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"War is about many things: glory, violence, courage, destruction. But at its heart is death. Each side in a conflict tries to kill the enemy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/how-soldiers-die-in-battle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #613: How Soldiers Die in Battle | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"War is about many things: glory, violence, courage, destruction. But at its heart is death. Each side in a conflict tries to kill the enemy.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/how-soldiers-die-in-battle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-25T15:13:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-13T01:48:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/613.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/how-soldiers-die-in-battle\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/how-soldiers-die-in-battle\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #613: How Soldiers Die in Battle\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-25T15:13:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-13T01:48:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/how-soldiers-die-in-battle\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":259,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/how-soldiers-die-in-battle\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/05\\\/613.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\",\"History\",\"Podcast\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2020\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/how-soldiers-die-in-battle\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/how-soldiers-die-in-battle\\\/\",\"name\":\"How Soldiers Die In Battle | Art of Manliness Podcast\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/how-soldiers-die-in-battle\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/how-soldiers-die-in-battle\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/05\\\/613.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-25T15:13:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-13T01:48:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"description\":\"War is about many things: glory, violence, courage, destruction. 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