Included with a Kindle Unlimited membership.

Read with Kindle Unlimited

List Price: $18.99 Details

Save: $4.40 (23%)

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime & FREE Returns

FREE delivery Friday, April 1 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon

Or fastest delivery Tuesday, March 29. Order within 2 hrs 48 mins

In Stock.

As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app.

[{"displayPrice":"$14.59","priceAmount":14.59,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"14","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"59","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"KCbPmRRH1ya9G9rzBfd9ylzhQpI307hHBHswMsUhX%2FkxXqW0jwWFjaM1NOnT9J%2F3yNfE0rFJW30PCBb%2FS5Ui5i5JJ86c4qpkwukhDRqrJyZWNx0n8Qd6N3%2FSqOECe349%2BsOyG4J6pN8%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"$11.80","priceAmount":11.80,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"11","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"80","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"gC874xfRblfKtI%2FGuHoQIFs2snJEagZ78Tkxr%2FFGXsDtglfdZkMqXz%2BwVPnThTil7jZYidmmJtuJMb8jVbd0Smo13bUUJA9defpQTeJo9b8Qfz7ZiUUwlTV0fGFW10FjAA6h28PoH2fZVt62DLVGgeQV%2BTW%2FG5fpLggzUO9QWjhw9SpP5uiVyNylIcx1lFMz","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

$$14.59 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Return policy: Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Thursday, April 21 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon

Or fastest delivery April 16 - 19

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Books I am

Fulfilled by Amazon

Share <Embed>

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$8.50
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: turtlerun

Added

Not added

$13.76
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: indoobestsellers

Added

Not added

$14.92
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: ZiFiti

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 4 images

Follow the Author

Dave Grossman

On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Paperback – Illustrated, June 1, 2009

by Dave Grossman (Author)

2,391 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$13.49

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$276.89

—

$276.89

Paperback, Illustrated

"Please retry"

$14.59

$8.50

$3.46

Kindle
$0.00 Read with Kindle Unlimited to also enjoy access to over 1 million more titles $13.49 to buy
Hardcover
$276.89

1 Used from $276.89 1 Collectible from $85.00
Paperback
$14.59

104 Used from $3.46 28 New from $8.50

Enhance your purchase

The revised and updated edition of Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's modern classic about the psychology of combat, hailed by the Washington Post as "an illuminating account of how soldiers learn to kill and how they live with the experiences of having killed."

In World War II, only 15 to 20 percent of combat infantry were willing to fire their rifles. In Korea, about 50 percent. In Vietnam, the figure rose to more than 90 percent.

The good news is that most soldiers are loath to kill. But armies have developed sophisticated ways sophisticated ways of overcoming that instinctive aversion. The psychological cost for soldiers, as evidenced by the increase in post-traumatic stress, is devastating. This landmark study brilliantly illuminates the techniques the military uses to help soldiers kill and raises vital questions about the implications of escalating violence in our society.

"Powerfully argued...Full of arresting observations and insights." —New York Times

Print length

416 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Back Bay Books
Publication date

June 1, 2009
Dimensions

5.5 x 1.2 x 8.2 inches
ISBN-10

0316040932
ISBN-13

978-0316040938
See all details

Frequently bought together

+
+

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

by Dave Grossman Paperback
$14.59
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00.
by Dave Grossman Paperback
$24.95
Usually ships within 6 to 10 days.
Ships from and sold by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's Office.
$4.98 shipping
by Dave Grossman Imitation Leather
$17.40
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00.

Greg Lukianoff
5,900
Paperback
96 offers from $7.30
Dave Grossman
1,566
Paperback
34 offers from $15.27
Dave Grossman
449
Imitation Leather
42 offers from $11.85
Patrick Van Horne
2,452
Paperback
36 offers from $9.99
Dr. Michael Asken
346
Paperback
49 offers from $6.20
Dave Grossman
3
Unknown Binding
14 offers from $13.45

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A former army Ranger and paratrooper, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman taught psychology at West Point and was the professor of Military Science at Arkansas State University.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Back Bay Books; 1st edition (June 1, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316040932
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316040938
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.2 x 8.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #7,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #13 in Law Enforcement (Books)
- #13 in Law Enforcement Politics
- #14 in Coping with Suicide Grief

Customer Reviews:
2,391 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Dave Grossman

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

In their description of Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, Slate Magazine said, “Grossman cuts such a heroic, omnicompetent figure, he could have stepped out of a video game.” He has five patents to his name, has published four novels, two childrens’ books, and six non-fiction books to include his “perennial bestseller” On Killing (with over half a million copies sold), and a New York Times best-selling book co-authored with Glenn Beck.

He is a US Army Ranger, a paratrooper, and a former West Point Psychology Professor. He has a Black Belt in Hojutsu, the martial art of the firearm, and has been inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

Col. Grossman’s research was cited by the President of the United States in a national address, and he has testified before the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Congress, and numerous state legislatures. He has served as an expert witness and consultant in state and Federal courts. He helped train mental health professionals after the Jonesboro school massacre, and he was also involved in counseling or court cases in the aftermath of the Paducah, Springfield, Littleton and Nickel Mines Amish school massacres.

Col. Grossman has been called upon to write the entry on “Aggression and Violence” in the Oxford Companion to American Military History, three entries in the Academic Press Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict and has presented papers before the national conventions of the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Since his retirement from the US Army in 1998, he has been on the road almost 300 days a year, for over 19 years, as one of our nation’s leading trainers for military, law enforcement, mental health providers, and school safety organizations.

Today Col. Grossman is the director of the Killology Research Group (www.killology.com). In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks he is has written and spoken extensively on the terrorist threat, with articles published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Civil Policy and many leading law enforcement journals, and he has been inducted as a "Life Diplomate" by the American Board for Certification in Homeland Security, and a "Life Member" of the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute.

Customer reviews

5 star		80%
4 star		12%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

How are ratings calculated?

Reviews with images

See all customer images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Pg-chan

The Opinion of a Vietnam Veteran and Retired Cop

Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2017

Verified Purchase

In 1969 I enlisted to do my Patriotic Duty, and chose to be an MP while performing that duty. I was in Vietnam (25th Inf Div for the first 14 months) from January 1970 to March 1972. After the first few months I surely had a monster case of PTSD because that was about when everything began to seem “normal”, but there wasn’t a term for it back then. When I came back from Vietnam my enlistment was up. I got off the plane (Flying Tiger airline), received a meal involving a very tough steak, and was essentially told to “go home and be normal”. My brother, now a retired Marine, had done his tour in Vietnam. I got a job where he worked (he later re-enlisted and completed his 20 for retirement). Several other employees were also Vietnam vets but we never talked about it.
My job involved hard labor and was just what I needed because I really wasn’t fit for polite society for the first year. After a year and a half I applied at several local law enforcement agencies and was hired by one with Civil Service. While working full time I also went back to college and got my degree in Criminal Justice. The image of the Vietnam Vet back then was of a deranged person who climbed onto a rooftop and started shooting people. I didn’t discuss Vietnam, or my recurring “Vietnam Dream”, with anybody. I needed the job, I liked the job, and I didn’t want people to think that I was crazy. Frankly, I wasn’t totally sure that I wasn’t, at least to some degree.
After about twenty years on the dept, and I was a Lt. by then, I was assigned to attend a seminar on Deadly Force and Pursuit Policies. One of the instructors was a Psychologist who covered the symptoms of PTSD. I suddenly realized that after my return from Vietnam I had fit the profile perfectly.
After retirement I was a Federal Courthouse Security Officer for eleven years. Another CSO had a copy of “On Killing” by Lt. Col. David Grossman and I read it, several times. Since then I have purchased my own copy, twice. I think that Grossman got it about 90+% right. I am not going to pick the book apart because, as Jesus warned, “while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them”. Also, I could be in error about that other 10%. Every time I read the book I learn something new, or relearn something I had forgotten. I recommend this book most highly to every combat veteran and law enforcement officer!

233 people found this helpful

Helpful

Adam S

Bad science leading to a bad conclusion

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2019

Verified Purchase

This book’s foundation is SLA Marshall’s fabricated statistics from “Men Against Fire.” From this foundation of garbage, the author erects walls of paper. Drawing a correlation between the training methods employed by the US Army and the increase in solider aggression (an illusion based on the previous Marshal data), the author manages to both condemn and praise the increased lethality of the US military.

The book slaps a hideous roof on this monument to bad science by hiding behind the authority of Jack Thompson. This book was written in 1996, and with the benefit of hindsight (it’s now 2019) we can easily see the cracks in the facade. If the name Jack Thompson sounds familiar, it’s because he was a Florida lawyer who made national headlines in the mid-2000s with his crusade against violent video games. A crusade which ended with Thompson’s disbarment and disgrace.

The truth is, violence can be perpetrated by anyone under the right circumstances. The factors are complicated, as are the solutions. There’s no silver bullet (pun intended). Outlawing violent video games/entertainment will do nothing but make us feel better, at least until the next mass school shooting. Violent crime has already fallen in the US. If we want to continue this trend, we must do the serious, delicate, difficult work of grappling with the real reasons behind violence. That means funding mental health services and getting real data behind the factors that lead to violence and solving those as well.

In short: if you came looking for answers to the “epidemic” of violence in the US today, keep looking. You’ll find no science of value in this book.

87 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jim Kaucher

An important book, especially at this time in our nation.

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2016

Verified Purchase

Lt. Col. Grossman's systematic and thoughtful study of why people kill -- and why they do not -- is important. His analysis on the role of conditioning on overcoming the natural resistance to killing another person provides helpful insight into how and why American society has become increasingly violent in recent decades. The last few chapters, which takes the lessons learned in the rest of the book and applies them to American society, ought to be required reading for those who insist on blaming the tools of violence for the existence of violence.

Thanks, Lt. Col. Grossman, for studying this topic with such rigor and for explaining your work so cogently.

230 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bianchi

Freudian Pseudoscience

Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2019

Verified Purchase

The book is less about "The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society" and more about the twisted and perverse views of Freudian sexuality and its link to killing. The author asks a lot of questions regarding violence that takes place in war, but fails to ask one of the most pertinent and obvious questions. Is the warfare just or unjust? And how does unjust warfare/killing affect the soul and mind of those doing the killing?

31 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer

Great topic. Not a masterpiece

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2021

Verified Purchase

This book is worth time and effort for its topic and focus, which remain fascinating, relevant and under-researched. The anecdotal material is fascinating, and some of the history engaging. However, the author is neither a bad writer nor a great writer. Lots of his arguments are muddled, and conceptual clarity is lacking when he compares his ideas with previous authors. The book is under-referenced, and the author's Psychology knowledge stops in about 1975 (i.e. Freud, Skinner, Milgram, stop). The desecriptions by combatants are fascinating but he returns to the same relatively small number of accounts repeatedly. Research, this ain't.
So I appreciated reading on this topic and learned things. However, I think that this huge and critical topic also deserves a review with higher conceptual and evidence standards. I think that there are other good books out there - don't feel obliged to start here.

One person found this helpful

Curmudgeon

Within a few dozen pages I found myself frustrated by the content and style

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 27, 2020

Verified Purchase

The jacket summary makes this book sound brilliant, however, within a few dozen pages I found myself frustrated by the content and style, which is littered with assumptions and received wisdom, and a lack of references.

As a contrast, the book "War Games: The Psychology of Combat" covers much of the same material in a much more accessible style.

4 people found this helpful

F.Lister

A real eye opener of war and its trauma

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

An excellent ground breaking and extremely informative book on what war combatants go through. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in the psychology of what it would take to kill a fellow human being. It scares me and I’m so grateful I didn’t have to personally face it.

One person found this helpful

Easy Andy

Fascinating

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 8, 2021

Verified Purchase

Not an easy read...given the title and subject matter perhaps that's to be expected...but fascinating and thought provoking. Well written. His other book, Stop teaching our kids to kill, is superb too.

Amazon Customer

Useful source for the study of close quarter battle

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2018

Verified Purchase

This book would have been better if the author had not kept reminding us of how well trained, well travelled, well educated he is. I found his arguments interesting ands

3 people found this helpful

See all reviews