Customer Reviews

Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Elizabeth Samet is a civilian professor of English at West Point. The increase in the number of civilians teaching there was one of the innovations of Fletcher Lamkin, during his term as the WP dean of the academic board. When I taught there, as a reserve officer, in 1967-9 there was only one civilian instructor in English, a woman who taught the plastic arts. Dr. Samet is a Yale Ph.D. and her (to some, curious) career choice of a position at West Point is one of the many stories which constitute this book.

She is able to accomplish several things here. She provides a vivid sense of the WP ethos, along with the `newer' ethos which includes women cadets, civilian professors, majors, minors, and a rich array of electives. She provides sketches and portraits of a number of her students and a number of her military colleagues. She reports on their communications with her as they move on in their careers, to and from war zones and, for some, to civilian life. The book is a mini-memoir and mini-autobiography. Most of all it is a long reflection on the relationship between literature and life, literature and the military, literature and war.

What is most impressive about the book is the fact that it is so accessible. Its materials are complex but they are presented in a manner that is instructive, moving and compelling. This is a book for everyone interested in literature, for everyone interested in soldiers and for everyone interested in West Point. I recommend it highly.

A few weeks ago this author was on my local NPR station and I was intrigued by the idea of her book and then I got out of my car and walked into a book store and there it was on the new arrivals pile. I'm not sure if I would have noticed it if not for the story on the radio but I'm glad I did. As a former Army officer who has dealt with some of the issues in this book I was pulled in by her stories of teaching at West Point, an institution I did not attend but have visited and those visits made her descriptions that much more palpable. This book will be a jumping off point to explore more of the references the author describes. I rarely find books that I can't put down but this was one of them.

English professor Elizabeth Samet arrived at West Point with a perspective much different than that of her students. At West Point, she is a minority in more ways than one: civilian, female and, one has to suspect, politically much more liberal than the vast majority of her students.

Samet, with a Harvard BA, a PhD in English literature from Yale, and no military experience, is perhaps an unlikely candidate to be a West Point instructor. But for the past ten years that is exactly what she has been - teaching the "literature of war" to students likely to experience the real thing for themselves soon after leaving the academy. In the process, Samet offers her students the opportunity to consider the moral and ethical nuances of the profession for which they are so rigorously preparing themselves. Theirs is a world of contradictions, and Samet strives to show them how a study of the great literature of the past can help them function effectively in that world.

In "Soldier's Heart", Samet sets out to prove that the way that the military regards itself is largely a reflection of the way it has been represented in literature. But as she sees it, despite the fact that the military embraces that image, its leadership still largely distrusts literature and those who enjoy it as a pastime, fearing that they are not as masculine as warriors need to be for the good of themselves and their country. Needless to say, Samet does not agree and finds, to the contrary, that her students learn much about themselves through an "unflinching look at both the romance and the reality" of the profession they have chosen. She helps make her point by quoting C.S. Lewis: "We read to know we are not alone."

Samet knows how important books are to soldiers trapped in what must seem to be a never-ending war. Her own father still remembers many of the USO-distributed titles he read during the Second World War and she notes that those paperbacks reminded soldiers that "books are weapons" to be read and passed on to others. As she sees it, books can be weapons in a variety of ways: "against boredom and loneliness, obviously; against fear and sorrow; but also against the more elusive evils of certitude and dogmatism."

She recalls that one of her former students, while serving in Iraq, read at a much faster rate than when he returned to the United States. He found that while in Iraq anything that challenged or stimulated his mind made time go by much quicker than it would otherwise have for him. But back home, far from the conflicts of war, he found that his reading had lost its sense of urgency. He still enjoyed reading at his slower pace, and he still loved books, but "he was no longer reading for his life."

"Soldier's Heart" makes a strong case that soldiers who study "the literature of war" are better prepared for combat than those who do not, that they go into the stresses of combat with a more refined sense of themselves and the morality of warfare, an important skill and a strength that will serve our young officers, and those they lead, well.

Elizabeth Samet is utterly convinced that teaching literature at West Point is a critical part of a cadet's education and preparation for service. The best part of this book concerns her experiences on campus and the classroom, and the interactions with students past. This is the part of the book that gets reviewed. But there's also a lot of background on the role of women in the military and how soldiers have always been readers. These parts are informative but not exactly dynamic. The best review I've read of this book is at www.ronslate.com. There is also a good one in the 12/11 issue of the Wall Street Journal.

One cadet asked her, "Ma'am, English class is the only place where we don't have to read about war all the time. Can't we read something else?" This question brought home to me how difficult it is actually to avoid war in the theme of literature. (pg. 41)

Samet began teaching at West Point in 1997. She completed her undergraduate degree at Harvard and her graduate degree at Yale. Neither fully prepared her for life with the United States Army. After her interview, which she fully describes, she finds herself a double outsider - as both a civilian and a woman. After war breaks out in the Middle East, she states that she has become Penelope (Ulysses' wife), as she waits for news about her former students.

The title is the WWI name for "battle-fatigue," "shell-shock," or PTSD. As she stays at West Point longer, she settles into her role - which is to train scholars and soldiers. She uses literature to prepare her students for some of the questions, problems and struggles that they may face as a leader of troops (in peace or in war). She spends a great deal of time on Homer, Virgil and Shakespeare.

Samet does a wonderful job weaving in stories of US Grant, her hero, into the narrative. About a half-dozen students play big parts - their education, reaction and post-school experiences provide the reader with a very gripping perspective of the 21st century officer corps.

She discusses the major role of religion in the Army, and how some soldiers are much more outspoken about their beliefs than others. Samet also writes about the importance of dissent in the military, and how the United States wants it officers to disobey bad orders (and how she teaches dissent through literature - especially Ambrose Bierce). She references many books, several movies, her Dad, co-workers and other cadets. In an appendix, she lists dozens of books and movies that she used to teach and/or mean a great deal to her cadets.

If someone is interested in this book or how literature is read by soldiers during war, I highly recommend they read "Bagdad Express", by Joel Turnipseed.

I read a review of this in the NYT and was fascinated by the concept. I have taught courses with military officers but didn't really have any insight into this parallel universe until I did. This is an absolutely marvellous, hopeful book that should destroy many stereotypes: that the military is an unthinking monolith, that military officers are blind to the tragic ambiguities of war and peace, and that literature is some soft option that has little to say about the world. Interestingly, this is the first book about teaching literature I have read that did not mire itself in the fashionable nonsense of much literary theory, though a dash of Terry Eagleton would not have gone amiss. Above all this is a book about moral and intellectual growth: both of our writer/protagonist and of her pupils. The sense we get of her capabilities are all in her lightness of touch and her ability to weave interesting strands together. I read the book almost at one sitting and will go back for more. I have recommended it to all my friends who teach in any capacity: if you can teach this to this audience....And of course the cadets teach us as much as the teacher.
There is hope beyond the 'know nothing' Neo Cons and it is from the grass roots of the officer corps. But she tells of dangers too as the political and religious fanaticism of some officers endangers the nature of the military. A democracy needs its officer corps to represent the whole society; not some self selected political or religious faction. There are some candidates for 'Seven Days in May' type players, but not it seems amongst her students. Poetry takes on a very powerful role in the West Point education system and we can only wish it played a similar role in the wider university system. Poetry is above all else a good antidote to fanaticism and glorification of war. Reading this book reminded me of my father in laws tales of war in North Africa in WW2 and the intense hunger for literature that he never experienced again in such mass form. This seems to be alive and well in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When I first read a description of Dr. Samet's book, I felt an immediate empathy with her. I had spent decades, as a history teacher, answering the question--Why do we have to study, learn about, people who have been gone for years; hundreds, even thousands of years? I could hear the same type of questions being asked, of her, as a civilian in a military school--Why do we have to read all these books--of what use will they be to us as soldiers--as leaders of women and men in war situations--how can all this reading help us and those under our command survive?

Soldier's Heart is a vivid and extremely important answer to these questions. With Dr. Samet, we step inside the highly disciplined, yet close, community of the United States Military Academy at West Point. She provides us a window through which to try to understand the growth of the Cadets, from plebes, to firsties, to commissioned officers. Their training is intense, physically and academically challenging; beset by the apparent conflict of the value of discipline, and of the knowledge that each and every one of them will, at some point, make command decisions that will mean life or death for their troops--command decisions that they will have to live with for the rest of their lives.

Her point is well made by discussion of General Grant and his view of moral courage in the sense of when to advance, when to hold back, and then, when to move. There is much at stake in the decisions made. The new lieutenant must show his or her troops that the capacity for command is there. She or he must earn respect for their command capability by demonstrating to the soldiers under their care that they are now bound to them as a community based on Duty, Honor, Country.

The experience of West Point is based on these concepts: Duty, Honor, Country. Dr. Samet clarifies how those values are deeply needed, unquestionably needed, in both the physical training for soldiering, and in the academic classrooms. Imagine the psychological conflicts that are triggered between absolute discipline, independent thinking, and chain of command responses. As Dr. Samet so well explains, to come to terms with these conflicts, to define a personal moral code, and to become both a soldier and a leader of troops, takes a great deal of thought--of soul searching and maturation--over the four year experience at West Point.

How can the Cadets learn to balance discipline, imagination, and the dynamic of courageous command? Where do the lessons, where do the models for decision making, come from? Dr. Samet's answer is, from literature and poetry concerned with war in all its aspects - from all the ages. Those who came before faced many of the same kinds of problems we face today. To help ground us in our heritage across time and place, we have their history, as best we can understand it, and we have their words--their stories--to help us, with their experience, their learning, their defeats and victories--to make our decisions with a balanced mixture of discipline, independent thought, and command dynamics--as well as heart and soul.

As Dr. Samet opens them to it, all that collective history pours out to the Cadets--widens their perspectives--provides them company and sanity in long, otherwise boring empty time between combat assignments--connects them with life, when death is all around--and, hopefully, brings them home a little stronger than they would have been without the words of others to bring sense and comfort. While nothing anyone can teach a soldier truly prepares her or him for the verities of war, it is hoped that the words, the literature and poetry, the experiences of others have, perhaps, led to better decisions; decisions on deployments based in moral courage--as defined by General Grant. The experience of literature and its lessons helps, perhaps, to bring them and those under their command, home.

Visit with Dr. Samet. Walk the grounds, sit in the classrooms, of West Point with her. Read a bit of literature, of poetry, with her. Share in the questioning and in the growth, in the letters and in the emails of her students. She reminds us, with intensity, that each of these Cadets, although each is part of the community of the Point--although each is bound for command service--is an individual with hopes, fears, and dreams--an individual who has made the decision to take on, well aware of the possibility of engagement and death, the huge responsibility of command; an individual who has made the decision to become a citizen soldier, bound to Duty, Honor, Country.

Do join Dr. Samet for Soldier's Heart. It will open your eyes, open your heart to the enormous heritage, in tradition and culture, of the Long Gray Line. Take the walk with her--it is a walk you do not want to miss--it is history--it is literature--it is heritage. Those who form the Long Gray line are your citizen soldiers. This is your chance to see, to hear who they really are. Dr. Samet will tell you that--tell you who they really are--and tell you why you can stand a little taller yourself, with pride, knowing that there are such young men and women, willing to serve as citizen soldiers, professional military, soldier-poets, and chivalric warriors. I highly recommend this book. Read it, pass it along, and salute Dr. Samet for her courage of commitment, and for her dedication to the words that help make officers, not only capable of command, but worthy to be followed.

I read a lot of military memoirs. Here's a well-written book about all the fresh-faced young men and women who will - and now do - lead our modern army, and how they change as they progress through West Point and then go out into the frightening world of modern warfare in "the Ghan" or the "sandbox." Samet, Harvard and Yale educated, knows her literature and she uses it well in trying to produce well-rounded young officers. From Pericles & Plutrarch, Homer, Shakespeare and Malory all the way down to Randall Jarrell and John Irving - she uses them all as tools to make her young charges think, in the classrooms of "the last outpost," as she calls the English Department, which is apparently set somewhat apart from the main campus. "Yet we are, in our remoteness," she notes, "on our best days a place where curiosity and imagination can find refuge." Her methods must work, because Samet keeps in touch with her former students, and their letters are windows into their thoughts. These former cadets are no military automotons. They are "thinkers." I actually read this book last year, and was recently reminded of it while reading Bill Murphy Jr's book, IN A TIME OF WAR, about the USMA Class of 2002. Some of the people in Murphy's book probably once sat in Elizabeth Samet's English classes. Murphy's book will make you weep. Samet's will at times do the same, but it also makes you think, just like her lectures made her students think. As a female and a civilian in a military male-dominated place, Samet has a unique perspective, and one that is worth reading. This book is labeled a memoir, but there is very little about Samet's own life here, aside from a few tantalizing glimpses. That part of the book - the personal side - could have been fleshed out some; I think it might have made the book even better. Nevertheless, this is a very good book. - Tim Bazzett, author of Soldier Boy: At Play in the ASA

Civilian Elizabeth D. Samet teaches English at West Point. In SOLDIER'S HEART, she recounts her experiences in the Army's military academy in the form of an intellectual discourse (the chapters would make meaty lectures) that is meant to shed light on the literary life of cadets more than on herself. She emphasizes that "West Point isn't a Dickensian school where the literal alone holds sway, but it does prize a Gradgrindian triad of realities, facts, and calculations." Samet naturally enough would "like to think that cadets, regardless of their major, can recognize the concomitant value of factual precision and imaginative rigor; know the diameter of the moon and a good paraphrase of Shakespeare...."

The cadets who draw her classes are fortunate students indeed assuming SOLDIER'S HEART as indelible proof of her scholarship and dedication. Instructors at West Point, even the non-military, have a duty to assist in the formation of young people who are the future of America's officer corps. Yet, cadets may be mentored best by teachers who present them with mental tools that will enable them to face and deal with dilemmas. Literature can be such a tool Samet eloquently illustrates.

Discussing the West Point culture, course materials she and others have taught, cadet reactions to this poem or that story, ethical debates going on at all levels of the Army, women at the Point, emails she receives from former students who are now commanding platoons or companies in Iraq and Afghanistan; Samet offers a learned meditation and a means for the readers to deepen their own level of thinking. At times, the movement from topic to topic, while finessed, tends to leave the reader wishing for more closure on the previous person or subject, but Samet glides along with a certain curtain of privacy and distance between herself and the reader...and herself and the discussions at hand. It's all right though. The soul-searching insights she brings us -- her own and those of her students and colleagues -- make SOLDIER'S HEART an eminently exhilarating and engrossing read.

Samet never forgets -- and neither should we -- that West Point cadets may give their lives on the battlefield after they graduate. She quotes from Brigit Pegeen Kelly's poem "Wild Turkey: The Dignity of the Damned:"

" 'A faith beyond the last desire to possess faith,
The soldier's resolve to march humpbacked straight into death
Until it breaks like oil over him

And over all that is lost. ' "

It gave me a better insight into the minds of our future military leaders and more confidence in their leadership.