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Title: Absolutely American : Four Years at West Point (Vintage) by DAVID LIPSKY ISBN: 1-4000-7693-5 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 11 May, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (58 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Absolutely Awesome
Comment: Absolutely American is the quintessential American feel good book. In the face of a pervasive cynicism in our culture and perhaps a generation's collective amnesia, the characters who grace the book's pages remind us of what has made us great as a people. It's the Herzogs, the Ignacios, the Supkos who have responded to the call to arms...who have accepted the responsibility of preserving our liberty, who have embraced higher ideals - duty, honor, country.
In their West Point and post-West Point experience, the characters display an up-by-the-bootstraps tenacity that is so much a part of our country's heritage. Absolutely American casts the best of our country's young people in the bright light of hope - they are human, they love their country, and they will steward our precious legacy.
Author Lipsky brings to every American the essence of what one of our most cherished institutions means to us today. The book's greatest strength is that it does not indulge us endlessly with U.S. Military Academy history and lore. (Make no mistake; the Academy's ardent supporters among us get our fill.) Rather, the author offers us an amazing glimpse inside the minds and hearts of his subjects - real people with real feelings handling real challenges. Why do they do what they do? What drives them? What are their hopes and dreams?
No sugarcoating here. West Point cadets live in a complex world in which they might trade loyalty for duty, where uneasy bonds are forged in a crucible of unrelenting demands, where a 4-year series of rapid-fire "wake up calls" defines one's coming of age.
We are provided with an insider's view of what amounts to a fascinating social laboratory - young people struggling into immediate responsibility while their peers at civilian colleges and universities are able to grow into theirs perhaps more gradually. It is as much a study in human behavior - under exceedingly rigorous conditions, to be sure - as it is a story of succeeding in adversity.
Lipsky's book, for me, unleashed a torrent of memories of a simpler time in the presence of the Herzogs, the Ignacios, the Supkos. As a West Point graduate, I was able to feel the cadets' struggles so deeply. I was able to recall similar situations with similar outcomes so vividly. I was transported back to a time and place that at once was both magical and terrifying. Because Absolutely American depicts the cadet experience as it really is, very little in the way of gaps are left for the reader's imagination. A welcome surprise, the work is remarkable in its honesty.
Reading Absolutely American renewed in me, as I suspect it has others, a faith in our emerging generations. That the cadets experience distractions today that severely test their mettle was not a surprise to me. In our day, we had our distractions and they were often challenging. Cadets today seem to be much more aware, more real, perhaps even a bit jaded. While they are not infallible, they more often than not seek the moral high ground. They try to do what's right!
Lipsky does a terrific job of lifting the shroud of mystery that envelops West Point. Students who attend what remains a breathtaking stone fortress are not heartless automatons or bloodthirsty warriors. Instead, they are 18, 19, and 20-year old soldier-scholars - half self-conscious, half self-assured. They are trying to make sense of the world as you and I did at that age, albeit through a unique set of filters. As Lipsky points out, irony is nonexistent at the academy. Through their eyes we learn that lesson early.
What sets cadets apart and what makes Absolutely American such a great read is that the academy's character is one free of the disenchantment that characterizes much of our society today. It is a book about hope and promise for shining young lives bursting with potential standing ready to answer the call to service in the proud shadow of their forefathers. Their destiny stands with the Grants, the Pattons, the MacArthurs, the Schwarzkopfs... We need to be reminded that noble ideals embodied in the words duty, honor, country still exist with us today. Absolutely American assures us that the leaders of tomorrow will perpetuate those ideals.
A truly wonderful read!
Rating: 2
Summary: Could have been so good!!!!
Comment: With some decent editing and organizing, this book could have been so good. I really wanted to love it. Instead, I found that it is a cursory set of observations and interviews, a bunch of vignettes with no depth. The development of a story was nonexistent.
Beginning in 1998, Lipsky spent four years at West Point: attending classes; going into barracks and the mess hall; visiting the nearby towns with cadets; and watching all of the training. He followed one class from the day they entered through their graduation. During these years, he wanted to try to find out why so many bright young Americans give up so much to study here and become Army officers. Well, if he found out, he never informed his readers.
In this almost totally anecdotal description of West Point, Lipsky describes a college environment unlike any "regular" college. He writes of the two conflicting value systems faced by these cadets: "huah", an all-purpose word comprising the military value system which emphasizes discipline, honor, duty, loyalty, courage, self-sacrifice, and controlled violence; versus society's value system with its emphasis on freedom, individuality, self-expression, pleasure, and monetary gain.
Lipsky is there when "The Changes" are instituted, altering the rules, traditions, and the deprivation that had once seemed unchangeable. "The Changes" allowed phones, TV, and music in the cadets' rooms, and brought about the end of hazing, among other things. It was implied at the end of the book that some of these privileges might be changed in the future.
One contradiction I noticed, which the author does not address, is that although it is widely accepted that a leader must be an independent thinker, this is not encouraged at West Point (nor at any of the military academies, for that matter). The message instead seems to be: be independent, lose your career.
I think that Lipsky was so enamored of West Point that he found it difficult to perform any critical analysis of the weakness of the system. Although he does disclose some of the Academy's weaknesses, he does not try to find out why they exist nor how they could be changed or improved upon. He seemed unable to stand back and look at the place with objectivity.
This book was full of fascinating information, but could have been much more compelling had it been better written. I also think a glossary would have been a helpful addition because of all the military terms and acronyms that were used.
This was worth reading because it is about a fascinating place, as are all of our military academies, each in its own way. I am sure that equally interesting books could be written about each one. I just hope that authors of any future books which might be written about our military academies make an attempt to write more deeply, develop an organized format, and make an honest assessment of the institution.
Rating: 4
Summary: Extremely revealing
Comment: The journalist author chronicles his observations of the cadets and staff at the military academy. He doesn't stick with one class from induction to graduation, opting instead for a sort of scatter-shot approach which allows him a wider view: the ability to check up on graduates after they've moved on to real Army officer status, or to observe the plebes (freshmen) being inducted at any given year, which allows the reader more perspective on the experience. (It's not in the least confusing.) Lipsky writes with the clear, simple style of a reporter, informative and inviting. He really gets into his subjects' heads, conveying all the cadets' and officers' thoughts, fears and dreams about West Point and military life. He also touches on a bit of history and is not afraid to shine a light on some of the problems West Point would probably rather not admit: sex among cadets and illicit drugs especially (but both are remarkably scarce, all the same). Kudos to the academy for having the integrity to allow Lipsky full access, and kudos to Lipsky for allowing civilians a good long peek at what cadet life can be all about. (Oh, and a final word to the wise regarding some other reviews on Amazon: any "reader" that says the book is out to revel in the moral impropriety of West Point, or who could come away from the book knowing nothing about cadet Rash than he had trouble with the two-mile test, obviously stopped reading less than halfway through. Do yourself a favor if you're at all interested in the military culture: buy this book and see for yourself. Lipsky has nothing but respect for the honor and ability of these fine cadets and officers.)
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Title: The Long Gray Line by Rick Atkinson ISBN: 0805062912 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: 15 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title:National Geographic - Surviving West Point ASIN: B00008V2X2 Publisher: Warner Home Video Pub. Date: 20 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $34.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $31.48 |
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Title: They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967 by David Maraniss ISBN: 0743217802 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer ISBN: 0061030864 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 03 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: West Point Warriors : Profiles of Duty, Honor, and Country in Battle by Tom Carhart ISBN: 0446611255 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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