Soldiers of Empire: Indian and British Armies in World War Ⅱ

摘要

Regular soldiering and combat are human potentials, not evidence of cultural or national essences, as much writing on armies imagines' (p. 4). Tarak Barkawi's new book, Soldiers of Empire: Indian and British Armies in World War II, is the latest counter-argument to conventional thinking by arguing just this. The key questions are 'how are soldiers made?' and 'why do they fight?'. More broadly, the book explores the consequences of allowing a nation to frame and contain how we comprehend the 'passions and energies' of military service (p. 6).