Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. We continue our deep dive into self-proclaimed "killologist" Dave Grossman and his 1995 book On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1995). Today, we tackle Dave's central argument--that as many as 85% of American soldiers in World War II outright refused to fire their guns, which led the Army to trick its soldiers into becoming killing machines--by looking at his one source: the work of Samuel Lyman Marshall.
Topics discussed include: The epic tale of a jet setting adventurer and war correspondent (or is it?), Dave Grossman is (shockingly) not a diligent researcher, what happens when historians make up their sources, the great debate over who stole valor, and the gang offers some exciting new dieting advice. Plus, some more rounds of Pokémon or Prescription Drug!
Sources on Kevin's World War II numbers:
"U.S. Army Divisions, in World War II," US Army Divisions, https://www.armydivs.com/; "Life in the Army," PBS, https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-war/life-in-the-infantry; "Research Starters: US Military by the Numbers," National World War II Museum, https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-us-military-numbers
For more info on S.L.A. Marshall and his "ratio of fire," see: Frederic Smoler, “The Secret of the Soldiers Who Didn’t Shoot,” American Heritage (March 1989): 36-45: https://www.americanheritage.com/secret-soldiers-who-didnt-shoot.
Theme Music: Occam's Sikhwee by Sikh Knowledge (Free Music Archive: https://bit.ly/33G4sLO), used under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US (https://bit.ly/33JXogQ)
More info, including show notes and sources at http://scandalousgamespodcast.wordpress.com.