The worst thing about war was the sitting around and wondering what you were doing morally.

 
Doing Battle - The Making of a Skeptic. In between Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays (1988) confirmed his war against government and military doublespeak and prepared the way for Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War (1989). John Keegan said its effect was "revolutionary" in that it showed how literature could be a vehicle for expressing the experience of large groups.

He is best known for his writings about World War I and II which explore what he felt was the gap between the romantic myth and reality of war; he made a "career out of refusing to disguise it or elevate it". His writings cover a variety of topics from scholarly works on eighteenth-century English literature to commentary on America’s class system.