Out of print for decades and praised by the likes of Stanley McChrystal, Robert Kaplan, and David Petraeus, <i>The Praetorians</i> picks up in the footsteps of <i>The Centurions</i>. When a group of French paratroopers serving in the Algerian war are called to answer for actions they consider necessary, however immoral, they plot a coup that results in a new French government and in the death of one of their own. Based on the events of May 1958 in France, <i>The Praetorians</i> continues with some of Lart¿y''s most persistent, and most pertinent, themes: counterinsurgency, the ugly, self-conflicted nature of modern war, and the seemingly unbridgeable gulf between the experiences of soldiers and of the civilians they serve. A former soldier himself, Lart¿y writes with unique authority on war and with a clear insight into the human costs of global conflict.