Caffeinated Book Dragon reviewed On Killing by Dave Grossman
A very revealing, important work on its own (that became tainted due to it's connection to U.S. police militarization)
3 stars
If you are already a history or documentary buff, or read about war (and personal narratives about war) a lot, a good chunk of it is gonna be "duh." But otherwise, there's quite a bit here regarding the psychology that may not be so clear. It's a very informative work that deserves a look.
That said... the author, Grossman, is the one who coined the term "killology" and his name's popped up a lot because of "warrior cop" police training seminars.
If you pick this up hoping to learn more about police and the killing psychology, conditioning, de-conditioning and the like, there's less than a dozen pages in here about it. The author may have written another book regarding it (or shell out $300-ish for a seminar seat). 4/5 of this book is about psychology and combat. But has a bit at the end about violence in society, namely kids …
If you are already a history or documentary buff, or read about war (and personal narratives about war) a lot, a good chunk of it is gonna be "duh." But otherwise, there's quite a bit here regarding the psychology that may not be so clear. It's a very informative work that deserves a look.
That said... the author, Grossman, is the one who coined the term "killology" and his name's popped up a lot because of "warrior cop" police training seminars.
If you pick this up hoping to learn more about police and the killing psychology, conditioning, de-conditioning and the like, there's less than a dozen pages in here about it. The author may have written another book regarding it (or shell out $300-ish for a seminar seat). 4/5 of this book is about psychology and combat. But has a bit at the end about violence in society, namely kids killing kids, or the media showing violence, desensitization, etc.
Worth a shot. And after all that's happened in the years since I first read it, I'll tackle it again.
