Of all the ways children play dress-up, only one lasts into adulthood. Playing soldiers changes over time, and what starts as backyard battles with cap guns can end in fraud or fetishism. Warplay has been part of American life for a long time, and our present can’t be understood without it. In Why We Play Soldiers, a military historian profiles the American civilians who dress up as soldiers by doing it himself. Along the way, he discovers a complicated romance between soldiers and the civilians who want to dress like them. Why do we love a man in uniform?