Mystery of Courage

Few of us spend much time thinking about courage, but we know it when we see it--or do we? Is it best displayed by marching into danger, making the charge, or by resisting, enduring without complaint? Is it physical or moral, or both? Is it fearless, or does it involve subduing fear? Abner Small, a Civil War soldier, was puzzled by what he called the "mystery of bravery"; to him, courage and cowardice seemed strangely divorced from character and will. It is this mystery, just as puzzling in our day, that William Ian Miller unravels in this engrossing meditation.Miller culls sources as varied as soldiers' memoirs, heroic and romantic literature, and philosophical discussions to get to the heart of courage--and to expose its role in generating the central anxieties of masculinity and manhood. He probes the link between courage and fear, and explores the connection between bravery and seemingly related states: rashness, stubbornness, madness, cruelty, fury; pride and fear of disgrace; and the authority and experience that minimize fear. By turns witty and moving, inquisitive and critical, his inquiry takes us from ancient Greece to medieval Europe, to the American Civil War, to the Great War and Vietnam, with sidetrips to the schoolyard, the bedroom, and the restaurant. Whether consulting Aristotle or private soldiers, Miller elicits consistently compelling insights into a condition as endlessly interesting as it is elusive.

Like a veteran hunter onto the scent of some elusive beast, William Miller relentlessly tracks down the mystery of courage from the Greeks to Vietnam with common sense and a humanity free of both naivete and cynicism. From his fascinating survey of literature, philosophy, history and anthropology, we learn that courage, after taking quite a beating from the modern age, is still with us after all. A rare encomium to those few who want to live but are not afraid to die for others, and who out of reason embrace sacrifice, find shame a worse thing than suffering, and count the physical world far less than the spiritual., An impressive, fascinating meditation on a timeless issue, The Mystery of Courage is interdisciplinary scholarship at its very best. It is a tribute to the writing that all Miller's erudition never gets in the reader's way. This will surely be the definitive account of courage for our generation and perhaps for our time: no mean feat, given the pantheon of authors cited in the book who have devoted themselves to this subject., [Miller] displays an exquisite feel for the warring emotions overlain by courage, such as cowardice, fear, and shame, and for the situations in which courage is displayed. Its stage is primarily combat...[which] Miller examines with astuteness and sensibility to layered meanings...An accessible intellectual exploration., Though he alludes to the connection only briefly in closing, one has the sense that this book is his reckoning with his own moral conundrum: What did I do in the age of 'Nam? There's little overt autobiographical information, but the personal concerns ooze from the interstices of the text., Miller...presents a provocative analysis of the fine line between courage and cowardice. Using historical example, literature and the memoirs of soldiers, sailors, and marines, Miller has put together a witty, articulate, and thoughtful study of why some fight and some run. From ancient Greeks to Romans to the 20th-century warrior, Miller examines the social, cultural, and psychological factors that define courage and cowardice.

William Ian Miller is Professor of Law at the University of Michigan.