Summary of Elizabeth D. Samet's Looking for the Good War

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The most enduring and tenacious iteration of America’s World War II myth is the decription that the United States went to war to liberate the world from fascism and tyranny.
#2 The first tenet of American exceptionalism, which claims that the consequences of our intervention are equivalent to the causes we fight for, ignores the timing and proximate catalyst of our entry into the war.
#3 The sixth and final tenet of the American dissent process is amnesia, similar to what Martha Gellhorn called in describing the revisionist history of the Vietnam War crafted by the Reagan administration.
#4 The books by Steven Ambrose that fueled the national fascination with the World War II generation were based on his association with Eisenhower, and his adoration of the GIs who fought in the war. They largely ignore any contradictions or complexities that might be disruptive to a sentimental account of American decency and goodness.

Sujets

• United States
• 21st century

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 19 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669354840
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Elizabeth D. Samet's Looking for the Good War
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The most enduring and tenacious iteration of America’s World War II myth is the decription that the United States went to war to liberate the world from fascism and tyranny.

#2

The first tenet of American exceptionalism, which claims that the consequences of our intervention are equivalent to the causes we fight for, ignores the timing and proximate catalyst of our entry into the war.

#3

The sixth and final tenet of the American dissent process is amnesia, similar to what Martha Gellhorn called in describing the revisionist history of the Vietnam War crafted by the Reagan administration.

#4

The books by Steven Ambrose that fueled the national fascination with the World War II generation were based on his association with Eisenhower, and his adoration of the GIs who fought in the war. They largely ignore any contradictions or complexities that might be disruptive to a sentimental account of American decency and goodness.

#5

The paratroopers in Ambrose’s book are motivated by a combination of patriotism and fraternity. They are not necessarily motivated by ideology, but by a sense of duty to their country and their comrades.

#6

The American military was made up of volunteers, who were generally patriotic, but also self-selecting. The laconism of GIs was interpreted as a sign of their purity of motive, despite the fact that they were also embarrassed by patriotic bombast.

#7

The Rambo franchise, which began with First Blood in 1982, marked a significant turning point in pop-culture representations of Vietnam and American violence abroad. It was alarmingly simplistic and materialistic, and it lacked any ideological zeal.

#8

The American soldier in World War II was not motivated by ideology, but rather by survival. While soldiers had a general aversion to overt ideological symbols and patriotic appeals, they still had underlying value commitments and a belief in the worthwhileness of American society.

#9

The idea of eager volunteerism rather than conscription also supports the narrative of D-Day, which closes with Eisenhower’s observation that free men will fight rather than be slaves.

#10

The American sociologist S. L. A. Marshall wrote the book Men Against Fire in 1947, which concluded that only about one in four American infantry soldiers fired their weapons at the enemy. However, other scholars have noted that citizen-soldiers were not as eager to use deadly force.

#11

The definition of honor articulated in the Band of Brothers epigraph, which emphasizes the importance of fraternal honor, is rooted in a Renaissance medievalism that idealizes the past rather than reflects some precise historical sense of honor in warfare.

#12

The Warrior’s Confraternity of Danger and Exposure is a degrading and violent thing. It can only be used for justice and liberation, never for conquest and oppression.

#13

The Agincourt speech’s special connection to World War II is due to its use in a 1944 film version, made in wartime England at the behest of the British Ministry of Information.

#14

The first memory Ambrose has of World War II is of a child playing war constantly. He saw the war as a game rather than a global bloodbath. This enthusiasm, along with his whiteness, allowed him to see the war as a frontiersman-as-soldier.

#15

Ambrose focuses on unity, not division; right, not wrong; and liberation, not subjugation. He often subordinates a consideration of causes to a veneration for the magnificence of the army itself.

#16

The media constantly talks about the deathwatch of World War II veterans, claiming that they are a generation birthmarked for greatness.

#17

The Great Depression fundamentally defined this generation. It was a period of unparalleled unity and commitment to the war effort, as well as widespread fascist sympathizers.

#18

The attack on Pearl Harbor did not completely silence the dissenting voices, but it did generate public enthusiasm. America was largely indifferent to the fact that the world was on fire.

#19

The America First Committee was a group of middle American businessmen who wanted to keep the United States out of the war. They were also the Communist Party line after the Nazi-Soviet pact.

#20

The Chicago committee’s opposition to the East Coast establishment is echoed in the current antagonism between the coasts and the so-called flyover states. In 1941, it took the form of a preoccupation with the ethos of America First.

#21

The American public was extremely cynical about the war, and many were spendthrifts, bootleggers, and profiteers who danced to a saccharine tune and complained about sugar rationing.

#22

Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, which was made in the wake of the war’s fiftieth-anniversary celebrations, is a visual expression of the school of remembrance I have been outlining. It shows the graphic depiction of the D-Day landing on Omaha Beach, which overwhelmed the saccharine quality of the prologue and epilogue.

#23

The film’s plot, in which soldiers are sent to rescue the last remaining son of a family of soldiers killed in action, is wholly unrepresentative of World War II-era attitudes toward individual soldiers.

#24

The mission of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency is to provide the fullest possible accounting for American bodies missing in action to their families and the nation.

#25

The act of risking one’s own life to rescue the wounded and recover the dead has become a recognizably heroic ideal for American service members and for the nation they serve.

#26

The ending of the film, in which Captain Miller dies saving Private Ryan, is meant to demonstrate the worth and dignity of the individual. However, the nature of the enterprise imposed by General Marshall necessitates that Miller forsake the command principle, which he had previously used to give dignity to his men.

#27

The roots of the esprit de corps that drives soldiers to return for their comrades left behind are ancient and literary.