I've been reading the historical novels of Michael and Jeff Shaara over the last few months. They are excellent books, and even if you aren't a history buff, you'll find them a great read.

One of the things I find amazing is how small the world really was back then. If someone was to write a movie about guys who fought side-by-side in a war (or more than one), only to end up in battles against each other a few years later I would find it a little contrived. But this happened a lot in the U.S. The civil war truly pitted best friends against each other.

Up here in Canada we learned some American history, but it really wasn't very interesting (although neither was Canadian). Reading it in this context, however, really brings it home. The way men thought about war was so different from today. War was nothing like it is today, or even was in the First and Second World wars. Thousands of men marching into the onslaught of musket fire and cannon, many knowing they'd be killed, and they just kept on going.

I have often thought about what kind of mindset you'd have to have in order to have the excitement of going off to war that was in soldiers even in the 2nd world war. It's such a foreign concept to North Americans today. I think for the most part, even professional soldiers don't have the enthusiasm that the volunteers did back in the 1940's and earlier in the wars of the 18th and 19th centuries. Maybe it's the media (I can always finger the media, but this time it's not bad necessarily). Back before the advent of T.V. and even radio, the only way people new about what was or had happened was through the stories of the survivors. It seems that most veterans are reluctant to talk about the bad things that happened. They're more comfortable talking about the epic battles, the triumphs, rather than the horrors and defeats. However, with the advent of movies and T.V. in particualr we can see first hand the horrors of war. We don't need to have verterans tell us how miserable the conditions were, we can see it. We don't need them to tell us how many men died, what it was like to have your buddy blown-up beside you. We've seen it all and more. If I was to volunteer for a war, I'd be going in with my eyes already open to the horror. It would have to be a pretty horrible threat to my family to make me go and do that. Back in the 1850's though, it was all about idealism. I guess war back then was much more like the religious wars of today. The belief in your cause (or hatred of the enemy's) is so strong that you'll do anything to advance or protect those beliefs.

I've thought a lot about this before and now that I've been writing I'll be thinking about it a lot more. The religion theme reminds me of another book I'm reading right now, The Salmon of Doubt, the posthumous collection of writings by Douglas Adams. He has some very interesting views on religion. I'll have to explore all this stuff a little more.