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The Resource Looking for the good war : American amnesia and the violent pursuit of happiness, Elizabeth D. Samet

Looking for the good war : American amnesia and the violent pursuit of happiness, Elizabeth D. Samet

Creator
Author
Summary
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
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Edition
First edition.
Extent
354 pages
Contents
  • Prologue: Is this trip really necessary?
  • Introduction: One war at a time
  • 1. Age of gold
  • 2. Dead-shot American cowboys
  • 3. Thieves like us
  • 4. "War, what is it good for?"
  • 5. Giddy minds and foreign quarrels
  • Epilogue: Age of iron
Isbn
9780374219925
Instance
Label
Looking for the good war : American amnesia and the violent pursuit of happiness
Title
Looking for the good war
Title remainder
American amnesia and the violent pursuit of happiness
Statement of responsibility
Elizabeth D. Samet
Title variation
American amnesia and the violent pursuit of happiness
Creator
Author
Author
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
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
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Samet, Elizabeth D
Index
no index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • World War, 1939-1945
  • World War, 1939-1945
  • Collective memory
  • Memory
  • War and society
  • Guerre mondiale, 1939-1945
  • Guerre mondiale, 1939-1945
  • Mémoire collective
  • Guerre et société
  • HISTORY / World
  • Collective memory
  • Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
  • Memory
  • Social aspects
  • War and society
  • United States
  • World War, 1939-1945
  • World War, 1939-1945
  • Collective memory
  • Memory
  • War and society
  • World War, 1939-1945
  • World War, 1939-1945
  • Memory
  • War and society
Target audience
adult
Label
Looking for the good war : American amnesia and the violent pursuit of happiness, Elizabeth D. Samet
Instantiates
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • Prologue: Is this trip really necessary?
  • Introduction: One war at a time
  • 1. Age of gold
  • 2. Dead-shot American cowboys
  • 3. Thieves like us
  • 4. "War, what is it good for?"
  • 5. Giddy minds and foreign quarrels
  • Epilogue: Age of iron
Control code
1227087002
Dimensions
22 cm
Edition
First edition.
Extent
354 pages
Isbn
9780374219925
Lccn
2021028289
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Note
WorldCat record variable field(s) change: 650
Other control number
40030845814
System control number
(OCoLC)1227087002
Label
Looking for the good war : American amnesia and the violent pursuit of happiness, Elizabeth D. Samet
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • Prologue: Is this trip really necessary?
  • Introduction: One war at a time
  • 1. Age of gold
  • 2. Dead-shot American cowboys
  • 3. Thieves like us
  • 4. "War, what is it good for?"
  • 5. Giddy minds and foreign quarrels
  • Epilogue: Age of iron
Control code
1227087002
Dimensions
22 cm
Edition
First edition.
Extent
354 pages
Isbn
9780374219925
Lccn
2021028289
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Note
WorldCat record variable field(s) change: 650
Other control number
40030845814
System control number
(OCoLC)1227087002

Subject

Genre

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