Madness of It All: Essays on War, Literature and American Life

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Overview

Memoirist, poet, and educator W.D. Ehrhart has written five books, multiple essays, and dozens of poems about the Vietnam War. This collection brings together 43 essays previously published between 1992 and 2002 in various journals and books. In addition to the Gulf, Vietnam, and Korean wars, and war in general, the essays explore a wide range of contemporary topics, including the American legal system, the isolation of American presidents, the tobacco industry, race relations, the IRS, health care, computer ...
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More About This Book

Overview

Memoirist, poet, and educator W.D. Ehrhart has written five books, multiple essays, and dozens of poems about the Vietnam War. This collection brings together 43 essays previously published between 1992 and 2002 in various journals and books. In addition to the Gulf, Vietnam, and Korean wars, and war in general, the essays explore a wide range of contemporary topics, including the American legal system, the isolation of American presidents, the tobacco industry, race relations, the IRS, health care, computer technology, junk mail, dishonesty, small-town life, and life on the Delaware River. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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Editorial Reviews

Library Journal
With 18 published books, Ehrhart, who served in the marines in Vietnam in 1967-68, is America's most prolific veteran poet/editor/memoirist of that war. This superb collection of 43 of his previously published essays confirms that he is also one of the best. Although many of the pieces deal specifically with the impact of the American experience in Vietnam (and the author's hatred of the war there), others range in content from a delightful account of a battle with the IRS to discussions of war and poetry and even a fascinating description of a drawbridge. Especially pathbreaking is a series of essays on the "lost" poetry of the Korean War. Writing in a style both passionate and informal, Ehrhart demands that his readers ask questions and develop a healthy skepticism, especially about their government. In spite of some repetitiveness, especially in the Korean essays, this is a first-rate book that illustrates a keen and profoundly engaged intelligence. Highly recommended for all libraries.-Anthony O. Edmonds, Ball State Univ., Muncie, IN Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Booknews
Memoirist, poet, and educator W.D. Ehrhart has written five books, multiple essays, and dozens of poems about the Vietnam War. This collection brings together 43 essays previously published between 1992 and 2002 in various journals and books. In addition to the Gulf, Vietnam, and Korean wars, and war in general, the essays explore a wide range of contemporary topics, including the American legal system, the isolation of American presidents, the tobacco industry, race relations, the IRS, health care, computer technology, junk mail, dishonesty, small-town life, and life on the Delaware River. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780786413331
  • Publisher: McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
  • Publication date: 7/28/2002
  • Edition description: New Edition
  • Pages: 283
  • Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 0.70 (d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface 1
A Line in the Sand 9
If This Be War 10
To Hell with Them All 12
Partytime in the U.S.A. 14
"We Must Have This" 16
Who's Responsible? 21
Why My Daughter Won't Grow Up in Perkasie 31
Forever Gone 37
On Common Sense and Conscience 40
On the Virtues of Dishonesty 42
An Encounter with the IRS 44
Alive with Pleasure 47
On Being the Last True Superpower 49
On the Sad Fate of American Doctors 52
Why Didn't You Tell Me? 54
The Vietnam War and the Academy 59
Sticks and Stones 64
No Facts, Only Perceptions 69
The War That Won't Go Away 74
I Could Not Help My Friend 79
This Is All We Wanted 87
Freedom Is Cigarettes and Beer 89
A Letter from Robert Redford 95
Shaking Hands with Abe Lincoln 97
The Summer I Learned to Dance 99
Tugboats on the Delaware 105
"What Grace Is Found in So Much Loss?" 116
On Inflammatory Rhetoric 127
A Modest Proposal 129
Indecent Techno-assault 131
Military Intelligence 133
Soldier-Poets of the Korean War 141
"I Want to Try It All Before I Go": The Life and Poetry of William Wantling 173
Howard Fast's "Korean Litany" 182
From the Halls of Montezuma to the Chosin Reservoir 188
Tarnishing the Glory of the Corps 192
Pennridge High School and the Vietnam War 195
The Poetry of Bullets, or: How Does a War Mean? 205
Setting the Record Straight: An Addendum to the Life and Poetry of William Wantling 217
"In Cases Like This, There Is No Need to Vote": Korean War Poetry in the Context of American Twentieth Century War Poetry 222
"The Madness of It All": A Rumination on War, Journalism and Brotherhood 241
Drawbridges on the Delaware 255
Where Do We Go From Here? 262
Military History of W. D. Ehrhart 265
About the Author 267
Index 269
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