11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Comprehensive and Insightful but Not, Perhaps, Definitive, December 7, 2000
This review is from: The Texas Aggie Bonfire : Tradition and Tragedy at Texas A&M (Paperback)
Maybe it's because I went to a college with no appreciable tradition of its own that I've grown so interested lately in tradition-filled schools like the Virginia Military Institute and Texas A&M University. I picked up Irwin A. Tang's 'The Texas Aggie Bonfire' hoping to discover more about that tradition, and about the role of tradition at A&M generally. I got both more and less than I bargained for.
In a note at the front of the book, the author writes that this is the first title released by 'The it Works' ('it' presumably being 'Irwin Tang'). 'Our company specializes in amplifying the voices, issues, and debates ignored, distorted, or unheard in the mainstream corporate media.' That manifesto symbolizes Tang's approach to the collapse of the Texas Aggie Bonfire on November 18, 1999, in which twelve A&M students were killed. Tang's book is an insightful history, but it's a book with a purpose, too -- one that may not sit well with many members of the Aggie community, and arguably keeps it from being the definitive history of this tragic event.
Although Tang (a lifelong resident of Aggieland and an A&M grad) doesn't leave a lot of doubt about his own opinion on Bonfire, he really spells it out in one of his interviews with an A&M faculty member: 'My book proposes that the Texas A&M culture is at the root of the Bonfire tragedy. Our way of doing things allowed for an unsupervised, unregulated, uninvestigated Bonfire. One component that compounded the dangerously independent nature of the Bonfire was the fact that it is extremely difficult and perhaps dangerous to one's career and possibly dangerous in other ways to criticize Bonfire, the Aggie way of doing things, or other Aggie traditions.'
Though I'm not sure I agree with all Tang's conclusions, I value and appreciate his willingness to swim against what is clearly the spring tide of Aggie opinion. Many Aggies may want to fling this book across a room, but I'd bet they would benefit a lot from reading it.
Tang notes that he began writing his book as the post-collapse investigation was still unfolding. I was concerned, therefore, that this book would be like so many of the 'instant' histories and biographies that appear on the shelves within weeks or months of an important event (or movie). I shouldn't have worried. Tang is a skilled journalist and apparently inexhaustible researcher (maybe *too* inexhaustible -- the in-depth history of Bonfire was a little more than I thought I really needed). His style of writing, however, leads to my biggest stylistic criticism: his annoying habit of switching back and forth between past and present tense, sometimes even within a single paragraph. 'The commission will have to...', 'Investigators must...', 'It remains to be seen if...'. Even the best journalist can use a skilled copy editor sometimes.
After reading Laura Fairchild Brodie's VMI book and Amy Efaw's 'Battle Dress,' I was not expecting to find myself exploring yet again the question of assimilating women into traditionally male preserves. But that's an aspect of the Bonfire story too. Unfortunately, Tang falls into the trap I commended Dr Brodie for avoiding: the temptation to analyze Bonfire/VMI in the terms of primitive tribal rituals. Fortunately, this brush with pop sociology is relatively brief.
All in all, Irwin Tang's book is not the broad-brush look at Aggie tradition I was expecting. However, his portrait of an institution muscle-bound by its own traditions is an insightful one. Is it a complete picture? Maybe not. But it is a clear-eyed one, and one I predict will be a crucial resource for future historians of a sad, dark day in Aggie history.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Opportunity to Learn, November 27, 2008
This review is from: The Texas Aggie Bonfire : Tradition and Tragedy at Texas A&M (Paperback)
As a former crew chief during the '99 Bonfire, I was closely involved with building the on-campus bonfire for 2 years. It would have been many more if I could have chosen it to be. The point I am tryin to make is that I loved the bonfire tradition deeply, and have been forever changed by its loss, which meant the loss of many young, promising lives. In my capacity as a crew chief and bonfire worker, I was filled with the desire to protect our tradition from criticism, as were and are my bonfire brothers. Ignorance is bliss, but not a way to live. I have encouraged everyone to read this book, to educate themselves about the misgivings that cling tightly to Aggie traditions, mostly to no avail. Winston Churchill stated once, "Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across the truth. Most jump up, brush themselves off and hurry on about their business as if nothing had happened." The truth about accountability is all our responsibility to know. When you read this book, you will see how stumbling face first into the truth sticks to you if you are strong enough to stand it. Never let common sentiment guide your sense of the truth. Hopefully, you will give this book a chance, from the advice of an Aggie who would have liked to not be in the minority of those who have. Bonfire should come back to campus, but not without understanding why it truly ever lost its rightful place. Good luck to you who endeavors to know.
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aggies: Read this Book!, April 28, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Texas Aggie Bonfire : Tradition and Tragedy at Texas A&M (Paperback)
Aggies who think they know everything there is to know about Texas A&M should read this book. This book is a sincere examination of the history and internal politics surrounding Bonfire. Tang is asute and wildly reverent(not irrerevent) in the conclusions he draws about the culture of Aggieland, and how that culture contibuted to numerous tragedies: the event on November 18, 1999 is only (if the death of 12 young people can ever only be anything)a manifestation of an absolute, rigid adherence to a doctrine of irrationality and destruction. The book delves into A&M's strained, often hostile relationship with minorities, women, and other oddball 2%er's. As I was reading it, my experiences at one of the nation's largest universities came back to me: all the smells, sights,and all were linked to what the book focuses on: CONFLICT. A&M is an institution in conflict with itself. This has caused the institution great pain, and A&M's challenge is to confront this issue with the courage to do the right thing. There is no one more qualified to write this novel, because it is clear that the author has a passionate love of Aggieland. The book is an offer of reconcilation and healing, and should be read as such. Tang has made a well-reasoned, valuable contribution to the heated, polarized discourse that swirls around the future of bonfire, and he makes an excellent argument for alternatives to the hallowed tradition. The interviews contained within the book provide differing insights on the various viewpoints of the increasingly diverse (if you probe deep enough) population of dissenters. Anyone who cares about the future of Texas A&M should read this book and ask themselves how they can contribute to making the university a place of intellectual stimulation and open-mindedness, not one of death and destruction. I am so glad to have read this book: it speaks truth.
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