Why Marines Fight

“Why Marines Fight is a candid collection of courage and esprit de corps that serves as a reminder that when America needs a real hero, it doesn’t need to look beyond its military.” —The San Antonio Express News

United States Marines, for more than two centuries, have been among the world’s fiercest and most admired of warriors. They have fought from the Revolutionary War to Afghanistan and Iraq, in famous battles that have become the bone and sinew of American lore. But why do Marines fight? Why do they fight so well?

James Brady, to some an unofficial “poet laureate” of the Corps, interviews combat Marine veterans from World War II to Afghanistan, and their replies are in their own individual voices, unique and powerful. What results is an authentically American story of a country at war, as seen through the eyes of its warriors; a story of the motivations and emotions behind this compelling title question. Included are accounts from Senator James Webb and his Corporal son, Jim; New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly; Yankee second baseman (and Marine fighter pilot) Jerry Coleman, and of teachers, fireman, authors, cops, Harvard football players, and just plain grunts.

Why Marines Fight is a ruthlessly candid book about professional killers not ashamed to recall their doubts as well as exult in their savagely triumphant battle cries. A book of weight and heft that Marines, and Americans everywhere, will want to read, and may find impossible to forget.

Praise for James Brady:

Why Marines Fight

“Brady explores both the emotions and motivations of the men who willingly run toward guns. Read this and you'll be steeled to stare down your own fears.” —Men’s Health

“For anyone who wants to know how the U.S. Marine team works in war and peace, this book is indispensable.” —Booklist (starred review)

"Brady's book succeeds in delivering honest, front-row accounts of war—the gritty details and the hard realities—and provides a veritable smorgasbord of answers to the question of why Marines fight." —Chattanooga Times Free Press

"These inspirational tales cover as many Marine experiences as Brady can pack in." —Kirkus Reviews

The Scariest Place in the World

“[A] graceful, even elegant, and always eloquent tribute to men at arms in a war that, in a way, never ended.” —Kirkus Reviews

“James Brady has done it again. A riveting and illuminating insight into a dark corner of the world.” —Tim Russert

The Coldest War

“His story reads like a novel, but it is war reporting at its best—-a graphic depiction, in all its horrors, of the war we’ve almost forgotten.” —Walter Cronkite

“A marvelous memoir. A sensitive and superbly written narrative that eventually explodes off the pages like a grenade in the gut . . .taut, tight, and telling.” —Dan Rather

The Marine

“In The Marine, James Brady again gives us a novel in which history is a leading character, sharing the stage in this case with a man as surely born to be a gallant warrior as any knight in sixth-century Camelot.” —Kurt Vonnegut

The Marines of Autumn

“Mr. Brady knows war, the smell and the feel of it.” —The New York Times

As the war in Iraq continues, the idea of being a soldier in wartime is of interest to many Americans. Why Marines Fight by James Brady is a ruthlessly candid book told in the words of U.S. Marines themselves, who answer provocative questions about what drives them to fight and why so competently and ferociously.

Publishers Weekly

The reasons are almost as numerous as the Marine combat veterans quoted and profiled in this engaging collection of reminiscences. Many cite the training and discipline drilled into recruits and the determination not to let down one's buddies. Others are motivated by vengeance after a friend is killed. Gen. Smedley Butler, after a career invading banana republics in the early 20th century, opines that he fought mainly as "a gangster for Capitalism." Some fight for the thrill of it ("the heavy machine gun made you feel like no one could touch you"), and some fight out of the sheer cussedness personified by Sgt. Dan Daley, who shouted, "Come on, you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?" as he led his men against the Germans in France in 1918. Parade columnist Brady (The Coldest War), a Korean War Marine vet, sketches vivid thumbnails of his interlocutors and sets the right leatherneck vibe-sympathetic, irreverent, comradely-to draw them out. Some tales meander; this is very much a meeting of old (and a few young) soldiers catching up and telling war stories in a glow of nostalgia. Still, Brady assembles from them an unusually personal and revealing collage of the nation in arms. (Nov.)

James Brady commanded a rifle platoon during the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star for valor. He captured these experiences in his books The Scariest Place in the World, The Marine, his New York Times bestselling novels Warning of War and The Marines of Autumn, and in his highly praised memoir, The Coldest War. His weekly columns for Parade magazine and Forbes.com are considered must-reads by millions. He lives in Manhattan and in East Hampton, New York.