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Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point, by David Lipsky
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As David Lipsky follows a future generation of army officers from their proving grounds to their barracks, he reveals the range of emotions and desires that propels these men and women forward. From the cadet who struggles with every facet of West Point life to those who are decidedly huah, Lipsky shows people facing challenges so daunting and responsibilities so heavy that their transformations are fascinating to watch. Absolutely American is a thrilling portrait of a unique institution and those who make up its ranks.
- Sales Rank: #78473 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Vintage
- Model: 1763201
- Published on: 2004-05-11
- Released on: 2004-05-11
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x .76" w x 5.19" l, .79 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 384 pages
- ISBN13: 9781400076932
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Amazon.com Review
Individuality would not seem to be a highly prized virtue at West Point. After all, new cadets arriving at the military academy are not required to pack anything more than a toothbrush and some underwear since they will be issued everything else. But despite their uniformity and disciplined bearing, the cadets profiled in David Lipsky's Absolutely American are still college kids who have moved away from their hometowns to figure out what to do with their lives. Lipsky was given unprecedented access at West Point and spent a full four years following a class from wide-eyed arrival through graduation. The most fascinating cadets are the ones who don't fit the gung-ho West Point stereotype. George Rash faces expulsion on a regular basis but persistently hangs in, "Huck" Finn just wants to play football but becomes more enamored of the military life than he ever expected, and Christi Cicerelle stays perfectly coiffed and, as she says, "girly," even while becoming a highly skilled soldier. Lipsky's tenure came at a pivotal time in the institution's history: hazing had recently been discontinued (part of a series of reforms referred to with both gravity and a little remorse as "The Changes") and the attacks of September 11, 2001 placed the United States in a war which the cadets would have to fight. The academy, in Lipsky's portrayal, demands much of its charges, its standards are high, and the possibility of being "separated" from West Point looms large for any cadet not up to par. Yet the cadets are shown as largely happy people, using the harsh demands of a West Point experience to find the kind of structure and purpose that other college students would envy. Lipsky, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, creates portraits that are, by turns, hilarious, touching, harrowing, disappointing and joyful. As his subjects finally graduate and launch their careers, readers may feel like a proud parent or friend standing in the crowd and cheering their accomplishments. --John Moe
From The New Yorker
In 1998, the commandants at West Point offered the author, a Rolling Stone reporter, unfettered access to their students. The result is a sunny portrait of a group of young men and women who, as one of them says, "don't quite fit in." Lipsky touches on some recent, controversial attempts at modernizing the academy—such as a ban on hazing and the promotion of "consideration of others" (which in the context of the Army could, in an "extreme instance," mean jumping on a grenade to save the lives of your fellow-soldiers)—but he is more effective as a chronicler of personality than of politics. A cadet defaces his uniform to protest softening standards; a bodybuilder worries that his future wife, following him from post to post, won't have a career; a football star fears life after graduation, wondering, "Can I think for myself?" Though initially ill-disposed toward the military, Lipsky eventually found that "of all the young people I'd met, the West Point cadets—although they are grand, epic complainers—were the happiest."
Copyright � 2005 The New Yorker
From Booklist
Rolling Stone journalist Lipsky, who specializes in portraying college students, turns to a certain college on the Hudson: West Point. He follows a graduating class through their first years as officers and an entering class from plebe to graduation. Among the notable graduates is Don Herzog, who initially wanted the infantry, tried aviation, and after the death of a friend chose finance. Perhaps the most appealing cadet is George Rash, neither infectious nor bold of personality, but who survived his name and physical limitations to graduate and go into the engineers. Others portrayed include the senior officers, and then Lipsky takes up the problems of maintaining West Point's unique culture--the military squared and cubed--in the face of a general culture that offers a host of temptations incompatible with its traditions; Lipsky treats issues of gender and sex (note the distinction) particularly skillfully, if more briefly than many may like. Near the end of Lipsky's coverage, the cadets face 9/11 and the realization that they are to be wartime graduates. Outstanding reportage. Roland Green
Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved
Most helpful customer reviews
66 of 72 people found the following review helpful.
This Book is No Goat
By Edwin C. Pauzer
David Lipsky, a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, and the son of self-proclaimed hippie parents whose zip code is in Greenwich Village is assigned to write about a class of cadets and write his story after a year. Nurtured with a distrust and dislike for anything military, he anticipates that West Point will throw up one roadblock after another. He is surprised when they give him unrestricted access the academy.
He sets about following one class that reports in July for "Beast Barracks" where new cadets or plebes are whipped into shape, must learn military courtesy and how to march. Lipsky must also develop an ear for the traditional jargon of West Point, some of which are many decades old. First, it is not West Point Military Academy, but the United States Military Academy at West Point, a promontory within academy borders. Freshmen are fourth classmen or more commonly known as plebes. Sophomores are third classmen and informally known as yearlings or yuks. Juniors are second classmen and are informally known as cows. The seniors are called first classmen, and are informally known as firsties.
The author starts out with a brief history of cadets fighting in past wars and fighting each other in the Civil War with the utmost lethality while maintaining the utmost civility for each other. Where the country could not stay together, the bond amongst cadets was inseparable in spite of uniforms of different color. I wish Lipsky had spent a little more time on this, which he managed to write with some humor.
He quickly attaches himself to a group of cadets called the corporation, the cadet who cannot pronounce the name of the game he plays (fooball), and a keen interest in a hapless, but likeable cadet named George Rash who is on the verge of being thrown out of West Point for lack of physical agility on several occasions. George skims just above the waves of academic and physical disaster. Other cadets mention his name "Raaaash" with emphasis, not as an act of unkindness. In George, they see their own worst fears as real and tangible.
The author asks for and receives permission to follow the class to graduation. You can tell that he is gaining respect for the men and women of West Point.
The most telling story for the author seemed to be his recounting of a lieutenant colonel (LTC) who takes responsibility for one of his captains who has an inappropriate anecdote on his computer. His computer being open, the cadets soon download the message, and pass it throughout the academy. The colonel tells his captain: "You're my subordinate. That means I'm responsible for your actions." The LTC, who has his enemies, stands up for his captain, takes the responsibility, and is forced out of the service. In retelling this account in New York restaurants and bars, the author's listeners do not understand why the colonel was punished, and not the captain. This is the telling point for the author, because in spite of his anti-military upbringing, he has learned enough about West Point to not only know the language, but to know how they think and even more, understand it. Lipsky makes his admiration quite clear for a man whom he sees as the embodiment of the academy motto: Duty, Honor, Country.
He follows the class through their romances, competitions, and obstacles. In the third year, the cadets are sworn in. Now they must serve in the army as enlisted men if they fail or drop out, and repay the army the cost of their education. In the fourth year, cadets request their branch. In the army, branches mean infantry, armor, artillery, aviation, quartermaster, etc.)
The author follows many of them through graduation, and into their first assignments. And George Rash? George finishes second from the last in his class. This is probably the worst spot because the lowest in the class, also known as the goat, which happens to be the mascot of Annapolis, collects the lottery which consists of $1.00 from every cadet in the brigade. Even in this George misses, but he didn't miss being posted to one of the army's least desirable places--Ft. Polk, LA.
This is an excellent narrative for one who wants to learn about modern day West Point, and the men and women who still attempt to live by a code of honor that seems almost archaic in our modern society.
Keep in mind, this is a story about West Point, not the army.
But still, GO ARMY! SINK navy!
51 of 55 people found the following review helpful.
Moving and Important
By Erica Scripps
As someone originally from one of the small American towns that supplies West Point with candidates (Winterset, Iowa) but who now lives in the artistic community of Chicago, I read this book with personal and nationalistic interest. Most Americans get the news about the war and our military without knowing anyone who participates in them. Lacking that human information, we can too easily regard the armed forces as just that--forces without faces. This book supplies the faces, names and stories behind Rumsfeld's briefings and New York Times articles, and it does so with a novelistic style that is engrossing and truly moving. The reason for the book's title is simple: the people who go to West Point dedicate their lives to both the most abstract and the most concrete goals of the United States. For every American, those goals are often hard to handle and assimilate, and for none more so than West Point cadets and officers. Absolutely American looks at what it costs individuals to devote themselves to honor, discipline, responsibility and the arts of war. The kind of people with whom I spend most of my time almost never think about the kind of people who make it possible for us to live the way we do. Absolutely American shows us who they are and how they got that way. It's also funny and sexy. I don't think any woman could read this book and not want to dump her civilian boyfriend or husband for one of the "steely-eyed, flat-bellied" officers like Hank Keirsey or Huck Finn (Huck's on the cover; Hank's the centerfold with the cigar). That aside, however, this is an important book. In difficult times, our country depends on the military; the military depends on the Army, and the Army is largely run by West Point graduates. The kicker to all this is unexpected: it seems that West Point cadets and officers are happier than the rest of us. They try harder than we do to be good people who are dedicated to their code, to each other and to their missions, and somehow that makes them more fulfilled and certain about their choices than most civilians. Many of us think that being American means being free--"Hey, it's a free country," we say. Absolutely American posits that real Americans, the most extreme examples of which are those who join the military, live by ideals that are often at odds with personal freedom. Those ideals are: duty, honor, country. I don't know if I could live that way, but reading this book made me think about that as I hadn't before. It also made me laugh and gave me a few new poster boys. I recommend it to anyone who has spent any time at all since September 11th thinking about what it means to be an American.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Loved it from start to finish
By jabba da hutt
Loved it from start to finish. Hit almost all facets of cadet or midshipmen life at all the service academies. Great focus on all aspects of a cadet's military life from the Superintendent down to plebes. More emphasis was needed on the academic side of the equation was in order as this is the true "time consumer" of a cadet's life. It just isn't as glamorous of a topic to talk about.
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