Run For The Wall: Remembering Vietnam on a Motorcycle Pilgrimage [Paperback]

Raymond J. Michalowski (Author), Jill Dubisch (Contributor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The writers deeply understand and render transparent a fully fledged American pilgrimage, connecting the land from coast to coast." -- - Edith Turner, author of Image and Pilgrimage

From the Back Cover

Every May, for more than a decade, motorcyclists have made the "Run for the Wall," a cross-country journey from Southern California to the "Wall," the Vietnam war memorial in Washington, D.C. While the journey's avowed purpose is political - to increase public awareness about those who remain either prisoners of war or missing in action in Southeast Asia - it also serves as a healing pilgrimage for its participants and as a "welcome-home" ritual many veterans feel they never received.

Run for the Wall is a highly readable account of this remarkable American ritual. The authors, themselves motorcyclists and Run participants, present the journey as a form of secular pilgrimage. Key concepts in American culture, such as "freedom" and "brotherhood," are constructed and deployed in rituals and symbols that enable participants to come to terms with the war and its consequences.

In moving, first-hand accounts, the book tells how participation in the POW-MIA social movement helps individuals find personal and collective meaning in America's most divisive conflict. Above all, this is a story of a uniquely American form of political action, ritual, pilgrimage, and the social construction of memory. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081352928X
• ISBN-13: 978-0813529288
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #988,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars RUN FOR THE WALL, December 13, 2011

By 

Fireball - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Run For The Wall: Remembering Vietnam on a Motorcycle Pilgrimage (Paperback)

Excellent book! If you are thinking about joining those who make the journey to the wall for the first time, I suggest you get the book and read it, besides the forums on the "RUN FOR THE WALL", this book gives a outsiders view of the ride, these authors did a great job by STICKING to the actual working of the ride, something that is very important for the reason of the mission every year.

4.0 out of 5 stars the actual pilgrimage, May 4, 2011

By 

Judy A. Cockrum "Library Outlet" (Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Run For The Wall: Remembering Vietnam on a Motorcycle Pilgrimage (Paperback)

The authors rode Run For The Wall 3 years in a row, the first year to participate, the 2nd for perspective, comparing 1st and 2nd Run, then the third with a book in mind, getting to know riders and leadership, interviewing and transparently documenting their experience.

Whether you protested during the Vietnam War, served in the military or left the country, Run For The Wall, is a book to read. It was published in 2001, but reading it 10 years later is even more poignant, because the authors foresaw the future of the Run, and all things considered what they predicted, fell into place.

Some features of the book are the day to day riding details. The children at the Rainelle Elementary School, the support at the Wall that riders show each other, the leadership techniques, snags, turmoils and the incredible ability to pull off the event one more time considering. The establishment of a Board of Director's after 8 or 9 years of a "folk-style" peer-to-peer "good-ole-boy" process of leadership selection.

A great read for anyone who knows a veteran. The "Welcome Home" theme is encouraging, moving emotionally, and stressed as a necessity to understand the 60's and 70's.