Grunt

Grunt

Mary Roach

The bestselling author of Gulp and Packing for Mars explores the military’s odd and obscure adversaries and the scientists who seek to conquer them

Grunt • n. informal a low-ranking soldier

At a converted movie studio amputee actors help prepare army medics for the shock and gore of combat wounds, while at the base for anti-terror operations in East Africa diarrhoea threatens national security. Beyond weapons and strategy, this is about the other side of war – how to tackle the challenging adversaries of panic, exhaustion, heat and noise.

From maggot debridement therapy to the slightly tricky ethics of testicular transplants, Roach takes us on a rollicking ride full of insights that fascinate as much as they disgust. Not one to shrink away from the gritty details, she samples caffeinated meat, sniffs archival World War II stink bombs, dodges enemy fire with the Marine Corps’ paintball team and stays up all night with the sleep-deprived crew of a nuclear submarine.

Revealing answers to questions you’d never even think to ask, Grunt is the inside guide to the memorable, maddening and brilliant science that seeks to keep human beings intact, awake, sane, uninfected and uninfested on the battlefield.

‘Fascinating…The book is a treasure trove of unorthodox thinking and experimentation when faced with the challenge of war…Roach gives a memorable starting point into the topic that leaves readers wanting more.’ New York Journal of Books

‘Mostly…she plays things for laughs, and the raw material is irresistible. Take the guys who fire grocery-store chickens at jets on a runway (to study bird strikes). Or the astonishing World War II-era research into disseminating horrible stinks on a massive scale, as a way to demoralize enemy troops. Not to mention the blast-proof underwear.’ Seattle Times

Original, fascinating, informative. Buy this book today and enrich your collection. Excellent condition.