Soldier’s Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point
Elizabeth D. Samet and her students learned to romanticize the army “from the stories of their fathers and from the movies.” For Samet, it was the old World War II movies she used to watch on TV, while her students grew up on Braveheart and Saving Private Ryan. Unlike their teacher, however, these students, cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point, have decided to turn make-believe into real life.
West Point is a world away from Yale, where Samet attended graduate school and where nothing sufficiently prepared her for teaching literature to young men and women who were training to fight a war. Intimate and poignant, Soldier’s Heart chronicles the various tensions inherent in that life as well as the ways in which war has transformed Samet’s relationship to literature. Fighting in Iraq, Samet’s former students share what books and movies mean to them—the poetry of Wallace Stevens, the fiction of Virginia Woolf and J. M. Coetzee, the epics of Homer, or the films of James Cagney. Their letters in turn prompt Samet to wonder exactly what she owes to cadets in the classroom.
Samet arrived at West Point before September 11, 2001, and has seen the academy change dramatically. In Soldier’s Heart, she reads this transformation through her own experiences and those of her students. 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, the uses of the call to patriotism, and the cult of sacrifice she believes is currently paralyzing national debate. Ultimately, Samet offers an honest and original reflection on the relationship between art and life.
Not The Way We’re Gonna Win
I agree with the other grads. Find another book to read. This is too liberal, too politically correct, and too critical of our government. They’re supposed to be creating leaders who are tough in mind and body, not cynical apologists. Anyone on staff who recommends this book should be separated, in my opinion. What is happening to West Point when things like this are not disparaged up there?
Customer Review: Good perspective
A well written account of how literature affects the soldiers, written by a woman who knew nothing about the military when she became an instructor in the English Department at West Point. As a graduate of that institution, I can say that she has a good understanding of the trials and tribulations of cadets as they struggle with their daily lives as well as the prospect of going off to war … and possible death.
Essentials of Children’s Literature (6th Edition) This book is a concise, straightforward presentation of literature and sharing literature with children. The two chapters in Part One cover current trends and the introductory material parents and teachers need in order to begin selecting, reading, and evaluating children’s trade books. Part Two defines and describes specific genres of literature and discusses the types of books that fall within the categories. The last two chapters comprising Part Three present curriculum and teaching strategies. For teachers and parents of children in grades K-6. 
