Few Of Us Spend Much Time Thinking About Courage, But We Know It When We See It--or Do We? Is It Best Displayed By Marching Into Danger, Making The Charge, Or By Resisting, Enduring Without Complaint? Is It Physical Or Moral, Or Both? Is It Fearless, Or Does It Involve Subduing Fear? Abner Small, A Civil War Soldier, Was Puzzled By What He Called The Mystery Of Bravery; To Him, Courage And Cowardice Seemed Strangely Divorced From Character And Will. It Is This Mystery, Just As Puzzling In Our Day, That William Ian Miller Unravels In This Engrossing Meditation. Introduction : The Good Coward -- Aristodemus, Or Cowardice Redeemed -- Tim O'brien And Laches -- Courageous Disposition -- Courage And Scarcity -- I Have A Wife And Pigs -- Shoot The Stragglers And The Problem Of Retreat -- Offense, Defense, And Rescue -- Man The Chicken -- Praised Be Rashness -- Stupidity, Skill, And Shame -- The Shape And Style Of Courage -- The Emotional Terrain : Fear, Hope, Despair -- The Emotional Terrain : Disgust, Anger, Relief -- Courage And Chastity -- Moral Courage And Civility -- Fixing To Die : A Valediction -- Concluding Postscript. William Ian Miller. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [321]-336) And Index.