Considers how soldiers through the ages have met their deaths in times of war, covering such subjects as weapons and battlefield strategies while offering insight into cultural differences and the nature of military combat.

First blood : Death and the Heroic in ancient combat -- Te deum and non nobis : death on the medieval battlefield -- A terrible thunder : combat death in the black powder era -- All glory, all hell : dying for the cause : the American Civil War -- An investment of blood : death and honor in colonial warfare -- This high place of sacrifice : "going west" in World War I -- A confraternity of ghosts : how soldiers died in World War II -- Diamonds in the mire : death and the heroic in modern combat -- Appendix. For pity's sake : a brief history of battlefield medicine.