Description: Forcefully examining what it means to be a civilian teaching literature at a military academy, Samet also considers the role of women in the Army, the dangerous tides of religious and political zeal roiling the country, and the cult of sacrifice she believes is currently paralyzing national debate.
Brief description: Elizabeth D. Samet is the author of No Man's Land: Preparing for War and Peace in Post-9/11 America; Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest and was named one of the 100 Notable Books of 2007 by The New York Times; and Willing Obedience: Citizens, Soldiers, and the Progress of Consent in America, 1776-1898. Samet is the editor of Leadership: Essential Writings by Our Greatest Thinkers, The Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, and World War II Memoirs: Pacific Theater. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Grant and the Hiett Prize in the Humanities, she was also awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to support the research and writing of Looking for the Good War. She is a professor of English at West Point.
Review Quotes:
"A thoughtful, attentive, stereotype-breaking book about [Samet's] ten years as a civilian teacher of literature at the Military Academy." --Robert Pinsky, The New York Times
"Absolutely fascinating. Never has Tolstoy or Homer seemed more relevant." --Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today "Like Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran, Elizabeth D. Samet's Soldier's Heart is an illuminating look at the use of literature by a group of young people in an uncommon predicament." --Geraldine Brooks, author of March and Year of Wonders "Strong, deeply articulate . . . I hope her work finds its way to more than a few Capitol Hill nightstands." --Alexander C. Kafka, Chicago Tribune "An exhilarating read. It seats you in the classroom of a feisty professor . . . elbow-to-elbow with an elite crop of students whose intelligence and imagination match their courage." --John Beckman, The Washington Post Book World "[Samet] make[s] a compelling case that the values embodied in the liberal arts can do much to steer [soldier's] to more thoughtful deliberations. . . . It's reassuring just to think that the hearts and minds of young soldier's are in such hands." --Marjorie Kehe, The Christian Science Monitor