I have a soft spot for the little guys in history.  Don’t we all?  The ones who aren’t always remembered by name, the ones without power, the common people.  I mean let’s face it, that’s most of us- when I try to imagine myself living 200 years ago I can’t sum up the airs to assume I’d be born wealthy or important.  If my family tree is correct, I ain’t nobody, historically speaking.  So I gravitate towards these sorts of people, even if making comics about nutty kings is fun and loud and crazy.  

You don’t get much more common than the soldier on the field.  They are usually a statistic, or maybe a face of nobody in particular in a painting of some important battle.  You see number plopped down like 156 000 Allied troops landed during the Normandy invasion, as though that were nothing.  That’s a lot of regular people!  I’ve always been interested in these guys and their experiences, and I’ve had this book for a while - Soldiers: An Illustrated History of Men in Battle by John Keegan and Richard Holmes.  It’s actually a companion piece to a 1985 BBC documentary series of the same name.  I didn’t look up the documentary until recently.

Because it’s almost as old as I am, it can be dry viewing at some points.  We’re so spoiled by fancy new documentaries!  But it’s pretty good all the same, and being co-written by the Famous John Keegan, who can resist?  At least you know it’s got the real historical chops behind it.

I made a youtube list of the episodes I could find: Infantry, Tanks, Air Power, Fighting Spirit and Engineers.  If you’re interested.  Added bonus: because it’s from 1985, he has interviews with WWI veterans, which you’ll never see in anything these days.