Josiah Bunting was born and raised in Torrington, Connecticut, he attended The Hill School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but did not graduate. Instead, he entered the U.S. Marine Corps. He went on to Virginia Military Institute where he graduated third in his class as an English major. and was elected to a Rhodes scholarship to attend the University of Oxford, where he achieved a M.A. and also served as president of the American Students Association. He entered the United States Army in 1966. After six years of service, he reached the rank of Major. He was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Vietnam; and West Point, where he was assistant professor of history and social sciences.

Bunting's 1972 novel The Lionheads was a scathing account based on his experiences as an officer of the 9th Infantry Division in Vietnam in 1968. The novel's main antagonist, General Lemming, was based heavily on the commanding general, Julian Ewell.

The July 28, 1972 issue of LIFE magazine included a profile written by Thomas Moore of then Major Bunting examining his decision to leave West Point because of his desire to "disassociate [himself] from the active implementation of [the Army's] policy in Vietnam..." In the article Bunting also stated that he favored a "citizen draft and civilian control over the military" and that he didn't "want to see that son of a bitch who grows up in Greenwich, Conn., goes off to Yale and becomes a member of the Skull and Bones get out of doing some sort of national service." Bunting served on the faculty of the Naval War College for a year in 1973-74.

Bunting served as president of Briarcliff College and Hampden-Sydney College and headmaster of The Lawrenceville School near Princeton, New Jersey. Notably, Lawrenceville is the arch rival of Bunting's former high school, The Hill School.

Bunting was appointed Superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute in 1995 and served until 2003. At VMI, he served as Professor of Humanities. He was responsible for overseeing preparations for and the enrollment of VMI's first female cadets.

Bunting is also a member of the UNESCO Commission and of the National Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington.

In 2004, Bunting was appointed chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

In 2007, Bunting was appointed president of ISI’s Lehrman American Studies Center.

Bunting is married and has four adult children.

Nonfiction

• Small Units in the Control of Civil Disorder (1967)
• Ulysses S. Grant (Times Books/Henry Holt, 2004), part of the American Presidents series (ed. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.)

Novels

• The Lionheads selected one of the Ten Best Novels of 1973 by Time magazine.
• The Advent of Frederick Giles (1974).
• An Education for Our Time (Regnery, 1998), a work describing a "dying billionaire's detailed vision of a new, ideal college", was a main selection of the Conservative Book Club in 1998.
• All Loves Excelling (Bridge Works, 2001), set in a boarding school.

Edited editions

• Macaulay, Thomas Babington. Lays of Ancient Rome (Gateway, 1997)
• Newman, Cardinal John Henry. The Idea of a University (Gateway, 1999)

Rank

Awards and decorations

• Combat Infantryman Badge
• Parachutist Badge
• Bronze Star Medal with two oak leaf clusters
• Army Commendation Medal
• Presidential Unit Citation
• National Defense Service Medal
• Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
• Vietnam Service Medal
• Vietnam Armed Forces Honor Medal, Second-Class
• Vietnam Campaign Medal

• Ranger Tab:

• Ninth Infantry Division shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI):