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Title details for Looking for the Good War by Elizabeth D. Samet - Available

Looking for the Good War

American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness

by Elizabeth D. Samet
Suzanne Toren
Audiobook
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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 GI 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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 30, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781666142570
      • File size: 413417 KB
      • Duration: 14:21:17

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Suzanne Toren gives a strong narration of Samet's ambitious look at how WWII is depicted and memorialized in our culture. Samet is a professor at West Point, and her work is an example of one's grasp exceeding one's reach. Its lack of focus makes her overarching idea difficult to follow. The author presents many detailed, and in themselves interesting, incidents from U.S. history but seems to lose the big picture because the details are not tied together well. Still, Toren's clear voice, excellent enunciation, and expressive tone are commendable. While her narration is wonderful to hear, the work itself may not be one that the listener wants to pursue in its entirety. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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