The Faith of the American Soldier

An exploration of the major wars in U.S. history as seen through the religious faith of the men and women serving in the military. Since men and women in battle not only face the prospect of their own deaths but also must fashion a moral rationale for killing, the battlefield is often a place of tremendous religious transformation. Do men and women at war revert to the faith of their youth or do they gravitate to the spirituality around them? Do they lose all faith in the face of horror, or do they piece together an informal faith that simply gets them through the fight? Are they better warriors and do they experience less post-traumatic stress if they believe their war is righteous and that they are agents of good? These are the questions Stephen Mansfield addresses in The Faith of the American Soldier.