Absolutely
American : Four Years at West Point
by David Lipsky
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 - Amazon.com
Hardcover from Houghton Mifflin Co
Book Published: July, 2003
The
West Point Atlas of American Wars: 1689-1900
by United States Military Academy Dept. of Military Art and Engineering,
Vincent J. Esposito, United States Military Academy
Hardcover from Henry Holt & Company, Inc.
Book Published: August, 1995
West
Point: Character Leadership Education: A Book Developed from the Readings
and Writings of Thomas Jefferson
by Norman Thomas Remick
Hardcover from RPR
Book Published: 31 October, 2002
West
Point: The First 200 Years: The First 200 Years
by John Grant, James M. Lynch, Ronald H. Bailey
Hardcover from Globe Pequot Pr
Book Published: 01 January, 2002
Duty,
Honor, Country: A History of West Point
by Stephen E. Ambrose, Andrew J. Goodpaster, Dwight D. Eisenhower
Paperback from Johns Hopkins Univ Pr
Book Published: January, 2000
West
Point: The Bicentennial Book
by Agostino von Hassell, Herm Dillon
Hardcover from Howell Pr
Book Published: March, 2002
Rebels
from West Point: The 306 U.S. Military Academy Graduates Who Fought for
the Confederacy
by Gerard A. Patterson
Paperback from Stackpole Books
Book Published: July, 2002
Atlas
for the Second World War: Europe and the Mediterranean (West Point Military
History Series)
by Thomas E. Griess
Spiral-bound from Square One Publishers
Book Published: December, 2002
The
West Point Way of Leadership: From Learning Principled Leadership to Practicing
It
by Larry R., Col. Donnithorne, Col L. Donnithorne
Hardcover from Currency
Book Published: January, 1994
Of
Honor and Dishonor
by David Crocco
Paperback from PublishAmerica, Inc.
Book Published: May, 2002
West
Point in the Making of America
by Barton C. Hacker, Margaret Vining
Hardcover from Hylas Publishing
Book Published: May, 2003
The
Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox: Stonewall Jackson, George
McClellan and Their Brothers
by John C. Waugh, James M. McPherson
Paperback from Ballantine Books
Book Published: June, 1999
The
Second World War: Asia and the Pacific (West Point Military History Series)
by John H. Bradley, Jack W. Dice, Thomas E. Griess, John N. Bradley
Paperback from Square One Publishers
Book Published: November, 2002
The
Class of 1861: Custer, Ames, and Their Classmates After West Point
by Ralph Kirshner, George Plimpton
Hardcover from Southern Illinois Univ Pr (Trd)
Book Published: January, 2002
The
American Civil War (The West Point Military History Series)
by Timothy H. Donovan, Thomas E. Greiss, Roy K. Flint, Arthur V. Grant,
Gerald P. Stadler, Thomas E. Griess
Paperback from Square One Publishers
Book Published: May, 2002
Atlas
for the American Civil War (The West Point Military History Series)
by Thomas E. Greiss, Thomas E. Griess
Paperback from Square One Publishers
Book Published: October, 2002
ASSAULT
AT WEST POINT, THE COURT MARTIAL OF JOHNSON WHITTAKER
by John F. Marszalek
Hardcover from MacMillan Publishing Company
Book Published: 01 March, 1994
The
Second World War: Europe and the Mediterranean (West Point Military History
Series)
by Thomas B. Buell, Clifton R. Franks, John A. Hixson, David R. Mets,
Bruce R. Pirnie, James F., Jr. Ransone, Thomas R. Stone, Thomas E. Griess,
Bernardo W. Monserrat, John N. Bradley
Paperback from Square One Publishers
Book Published: November, 2002
West
Point: A Bicentennial History (Modern
War Studies)
by Theodore J. Crackel
Paperback from Univ Pr of Kansas
Book Published: October, 2003
West
Point Warriors: Profiles of Duty, Honor, And Country in Battle
by Tom Carhart
Paperback from Warner Books
Book Published: August, 2002
Honor
Untarnished: A West Point Graduate's Memoir of World War II
by Donald V. Bennett, William R. Forstchen, Donald Bennett
Hardcover from Forge
Book Published: June, 2003
West
Point: Two Centuries of Honor and Tradition
by H., Robert Cowley, et al
On the Fourth of July in the year 1802, a handful of cadets gathered
on the tall banks of the Hudson River to celebrate the formal opening of
the United States Military Academy at West Point. At the time, two instructors
with few books taught the rudiments of military engineering in a building
no larger than a country schoolhouse. From these inauspicious beginnings
rose a national citadel that has produced America's greatest military leaders
and two presidents (three, if you count the Confederacy's Jefferson Davis).
This is the story of "The Point," in the throes of war and the lull of
peace, in its glory days and years of challenge. Amazon.com
Hardcover: 304 pages
Warner Books; ISBN: 0446530182; (May 2002)
The
Spirit of West Point: Celebrating 200 Years
by Jon C. Malinowski, Eugene J. Palka
Paperback from Black Dome Press
Book Published: November, 2001
The
Campus Guides: West Point U.S. Military Academy
by Rod Miller, Richard Cheek, Alexander M., Jr. Haig
Paperback from Princeton Architectural Press
Book Published: January, 2002
Atlas
for the Great War (West Point Military History)
by Barbara Pleasant, Thomas E. Griess
Paperback from Square One Publishers
Book Published: August, 2003
The
Colored Cadet at West Point: Autobiography of Lieut. Henry Ossian Flipper,
U.S.A., First Graduate of Color from the U.S. Military Academy (Blacks
in the American West Series)
by Henry Ossian Flipper, Quintard Taylor
Paperback from Bison Bks Corp
Book Published: October, 1998
The
Wars of Napoleon (West Point Military History)
by Albert Sidney Britt, Thomas E. Griess
Paperback from Square One Publishers
Book Published: August, 2003
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