Looking for the good war : American amnesia and the violent pursuit of happiness
(Book)
Author
Status
Williams Public Library - Non-Fiction
940.5373 SAMET, ELIZABETH D.
1 available
940.5373 SAMET, ELIZABETH D.
1 available
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Copies
Location | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Williams Public Library - Non-Fiction | 940.5373 SAMET, ELIZABETH D. | On Shelf |
More Details
Format
Book
Physical Desc
352 pages ; 22 cm
Street Date
2111
Language
English
Notes
Description
In Looking for the Good War, Elizabeth D. Samet reexamines the literature, art, and culture that emerged after World War II, bringing her expertise as a professor of English at West Point to bear on the complexity of the postwar period in national life. She exposes the confusion about American identity that was expressed during and immediately after the war, and the deep national ambivalence toward war, violence, and veterans―all of which were suppressed in subsequent decades by a dangerously sentimental attitude toward the United States’ “exceptional” history and destiny.
Samet finds the war's ambivalent legacy in some of its most heavily mythologized figures: the war correspondent epitomized by Ernie Pyle, the character of the erstwhile G.I. turned either cop or criminal in the pulp fiction and feature films of the late 1940s, the disaffected Civil War veteran who looms so large on the screen in the Cold War Western, and the resurgent military hero of the post-Vietnam period. Taken together, these figures reveal key elements of postwar attitudes toward violence, liberty, and nation―attitudes that have shaped domestic and foreign policy and that respond in various ways to various assumptions about national identity and purpose established or affirmed by World War II.
As the United States reassesses its roles in Afghanistan and the Middle East, the time has come to rethink our national mythology: the way that World War II shaped our sense of national destiny, our beliefs about the use of American military force throughout the world, and our inability to accept the realities of the twenty-first century’s decades of devastating conflict.
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Citations
APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)
Samet, E. D. (2021). Looking for the good war: American amnesia and the violent pursuit of happiness (First edition.). Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Samet, Elizabeth D.. 2021. Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Samet, Elizabeth D.. Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Samet, Elizabeth D.. Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness First edition., Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021.
Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.
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