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

by W.D. Ehrhart

Overview

"I cannot begin to count the number of times over the past 37 years that I have wished I had never heard of Vietnam, let alone fought in the Vietnam War. That experience has haunted my days. It has troubled my nights. It has shaped my identity and colored the way I see the world and everything in it"--from the Preface.

W.D. Ehrhart, called "one of the great poets and writers of nonfiction produced by the Vietnam War" by The Nation, here presents 43 essays, whose topics include not only the Gulf, Vietnam, and Korean wars, the conflict between Israel and Palestine, war and journalism, and American war poetry, but also junk mail, the Internet, the IRS, tugboats, drawbridges, race relations, the justice system, health care, small town life in America, nicotine addiction, the bravado of youth, honesty and American culture, the rhetoric of national mythology, and presidential isolation, among others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786483402
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	07/27/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	283
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Memoirist, poet, editor, and Marine veteran, W.D. Ehrhart taught English and history at the Haverford School in Haverford, Pennsylvania. The author of twenty books, his prose and poetry have appeared in hundreds of publications including the Los Angeles Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Utne Reader, Reader’s Digest, American Poetry Review and the Virginia Quarterly Review. He was a major presence in the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary The Vietnam War.
Memoirist, poet, editor, and Marine veteran W.D. Ehrhart taught English and history at the Haverford School in Haverford, Pennsylvania. The author of twenty books, his prose and poetry have appeared in hundreds of publications including the Los Angeles Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Utne Reader, Reader's Digest, American Poetry Review and the Virginia Quarterly Review. He was a major presence in the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary The Vietnam War.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments    
Preface    
The Essays    
Military History of W.D. Ehrhart    
About the Author    
Index    

Editorial Reviews

As a poet and editor, Bill Ehrhart is clearly one of the major figures in Vietnam War literature”—John Newman, curator of the Vietnam War Literature Collection at Colorado State University; “one of the great poets and writers of nonfiction produced by the Vietnam War”—The Nation; “delightful...fascinating...a first-rate book...highly recommended”—Library Journal; “a smorgasbord of interesting subjects characterized by good writing is found”—Catholic Library World; “one of the most fascinating writers in America”—Intervention Magazine; “contains 43 essays on a variety of topics, including the Vietnam War”—The VVA Veteran.

From the Publisher