The Village Blacksmith -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

 

UNDER a spreading chestnut tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms	5
Are strong as iron bands.
His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate'er he can,	10
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.
Week in, week out, from morn till night,
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge	15
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
When the evening sun is low.
And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;	20
They love to see the flaming forge,
And hear the bellows roar,
And watch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from a threshing-floor.
He goes on Sunday to the church,	25
And sits among his boys;
He hears the parson pray and preach,
He hears his daughter's voice,
Singing in the village choir,
And it makes his heart rejoice.	30
It sounds to him like her mother's voice,
Singing in Paradise!
He needs must think of her once more,
How in the grave she lies;
And with his hard, rough hand he wipes	35
A tear out of his eyes.
Toiling,—rejoicing,—sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close;	40
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose.
Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,
For the lesson thou hast taught!
Thus at the flaming forge of life	45
Our fortunes must be wrought;
Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
Each burning deed and thought!

Gustav Mahler -- Fifth Symphony, 4th Movement, Adagietto

The New York Philharmonic (Leonard Bernstein, conducting) played this piece during Robert F. Kennedy's funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1968.

 

 

 

VMI Summer Reading (Unofficial): Vietnam (21 to 25)

"In a 1968 Associated Press photo from Vietnam by Art Greenspon, a soldier guides an unseen medevac helicopter to a jungle clearing where wounded comrades wait."

 

Two novels, both written by combat infantrymen; two personal memoirs, one by a former POW and the other by a combat infantryman; and, one group biography of five Annapolis graduates all of whom served during the Vietnam era in some capacity.

 

21. Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, Karl Marlantes



"An incredible publishing story—written over the course of thirty years by a highly decorated Vietnam veteran...Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead. It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant...and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat."

22. The 13th Valley, John M. Del Vecchio



Prior to the recent publication of Matterhorn, this was the novel hailed by Vietnam veterans as the one that most accurately represented their experience. The day-to-day detail is as remarkable as the chaos and confusion of the combat scenes.

23. When Hell was in Session, Adm. Jeremiah Denton



No offense to #24 below, but this is the book that should be on high school reading lists. A shocking testimony to human cruelty, and man's capacity to transcend suffering:

"The punishment was so gory that each day Happy [a prison guard], after tightening the ropes, would still be weeping when he went to the next cell to let Mulligan out to empty his bucket. For five more days and nights, I remained in the rig. My back got one respite in that time. I managed to lean against my bucket, which I had maneuvered into position on the pallet, and relieve the strain enough to get some sleep. Even a roving guard took some pity. He saw me leaning against the bucket but didn’t report it for 18 hours. By the fifth morning, I was nearing despair. I offered myself to God with an admission that I could take no more on my own. Tears ran down my face as I repeated my vow of surrender to Him. Strangely, as soon as I made the vow, a deep feeling of peace settled into my tortured mind and pain-wracked body, and the suffering left me completely. It was the most profound and deeply inspiring moment of my life."

24. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien



“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.”  

25. The Nightingale's Song, Robert Timberg.



This is an outstanding group biography of five Annapolis graduates, John McCain, Jim Webb, John Poindexter, Oliver North, and Robert MacFarlane. The account of now-Senator John McCain's torture and captivity in North Vietnam is unforgettable. There's a lot here about honor, responsibility, ambition, and the traps we fall into. You will also want to read former Marine Jim Webb's novel of Vietnam, Fields of Fire.

VMI Summer Reading (Unofficial): World War II (16 to 20)

 

Two personal memoirs, a couple of novels, and the biography of an airborne company. To my knowledge, I've never met anyone who served in World War I (my great-grandfather died well before I was born). Many of today's college students might never have met anyone who served in WWII. Their grandfathers may have served in Vietnam. This year's incoming college freshmen were in first grade on 9/11/2001.


16. With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa, Eugene Sledge



“In all the literature on the Second World War, there is not a more honest, realistic or moving memoir than Eugene Sledge’s. This is the real deal, the real war: unvarnished, brutal, without a shred of sentimentality or false patriotism, a profound primer on what it actually was like to be in that war. It is a classic that will outlive all the armchair generals’ safe accounts of—not the ‘good war’—but the worst war ever.”—Ken Burns


17. Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest, Stephen E. Ambrose



If you watched the excellent HBO mini-series, then you should read the book that inspired it. If you have read it, you will like Ambrose's Citizen Soldiers just as much, and maybe more. Ambrose's gift was that he was able to get the combat veterans of WWII to talk about their experiences in a way that other historians never could, or bothered to. A possible flaw is his penchant for idolizing them; he sometimes sounds like Homer singing of the heroes of Ilium:

First, Ajax son of Telamon killed brave Epicles, a comrade of Sarpedon, hitting him with a jagged stone that lay by the battlements at the very top of the wall. As men now are, even one who is in the bloom of youth could hardly lift it with his two hands, but Ajax raised it high aloft and flung it down, smashing Epicles' four-crested helmet so that the bones of his head were crushed to pieces, and he fell from the high wall as though he were diving, with no more life left in him.

18. The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer



The plot of this novel is kind of irrelevant, the characters are largely forgettable, but the writing, my oh my the writing. What was it like to be in a troop ship in the Pacific during WWII? What did the food taste like? Just how hot and buggy were those islands? Mailer is unrivaled in his descriptive detail. I have been meaning to read, but have never quite gotten around to, his The Executioner's Song.

19. Piece of Cake, Derek Robinson



This is an absolutely riveting novel about RAF pilots during the early years of WWII. As in Mailer's novel, don't expect "rah-rah" patriotism and good v. evil plotting. The characters are remarkable and vividly drawn. There's an excellent portrayal of a psychopathic fighter pilot. Hanging over everything is the clear realization that, with every added day and every added sortie, each individual pilot's probability of survival eventually reaches nil.

20. Quartered Safe out Here, George MacDonald Fraser



A personal memoir of his service as a combat infantryman in Burma, by the author of the stupendous, not-to-be-missed Flashman books. From the book: "To reduce it to a selfish, personal level...if the [atomic] bombs had been withheld, and the war had continued on conventional lines...I might have been [killed]...in which case my three children and eight grandchildren would never have been born. And that, I'm afraid, is where all discussion of pros and cons evaporates and becomes meaningless, because for those eleven lives I would pull the plug on the whole Japanese nation and never even blink. And so, I dare suggest, would you. And if you wouldn't, you may be nearer to the divine than I am but you sure as hell aren't fit to be parents or grandparents."

VMI Summer Reading (Unofficial): World War I (11 to 15)

Gassed, John Singer Sargent (1919)

And now for the Great War, with a classic of military history, a phenomenal biography of Winston Churchill, two great novels, and, wait for it, a hybrid work of literary criticism and military history.
11. The Face of Battle, John Keegan



"In his scrupulous reassessment of three battles representative of three different time periods, [Keegan] manages to convey what the experience of combat meant for the participants, whether they were facing the arrow cloud at the battle of Agincourt, the musket balls at Waterloo, or the steel rain of the Somme." A classic of military history, on this segment of the list obviously for it's coverage of what it was like to fight at the Somme. Another classic on trench warfare is John Ellis's Eye Deep in Hell.

12. Once an Eagle, Anton Myrer



"Required reading for West Point and Marine Corps cadets, Once An Eagle is the story of one special man, a soldier named Sam Damon, and his adversary over a lifetime, fellow officer Courtney Massengale. Damon is a professional who puts duty, honor, and the men he commands above self-interest. Massengale, however, brilliantly advances by making the right connections behind the lines and in Washington's corridors of power." This novel is perhaps best at capturing the lean times for U.S. Army officers during the years between The Great War and the Second World War. But the best combat scenes take place during WWI in France.

13. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque



Here's another book that they wanted you to read in high school (just like The Red Badge of Courage), and which you should have. Even if you did read it then, read it again now -- maybe you'll actually appreciate it this time. Don't be fooled by the "antiwar" label often attached to this book. It's perceived as antiwar only because it presents war realistically, complete with its waste, randomness, and cruelty.

14. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory (1874-1932), William Manchester



I had to sneak this one onto the list somewhere, and the Great War segment fits the bill well enough. This is perhaps the most thrilling biography of Winston Churchill and his times, from his days as a cavalry officer at the last cavalry charge in history to his service as First Lord of the Admiralty during the Great War. The preface, which sets Winston Churchill within his time and social class, is one of the best things I have ever read. After this, you would like Manchester's American Caesar, his biography of General Douglas MacArthur.

15. The Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fussell



One of my all time favorite books -- you will definitely feel smarter after reading it. And you will understand World War I -- and World War I poetry -- better than you ever had. Fussell was an English literature professor but he was also a WWII combat infantryman, so when he writes about the experiences of the poets, authors, and memoirists of the Great War, he brings a perspective that no one else could. And yes, you should also read an anthology of WWI British poetry [it costs less that $3.00! Buy it!] as well as Robert Graves' Good-bye to All That, which is featured prominently in Fussell's book.

VMI Summer Reading (Unofficial): The Civil War (6 to 10)

The Fort Pillow Massacre (1864)

 

I'm afraid I'm going to pass over the War of 1812 [if you must, there is always Theodore Roosevelt's The Naval War of 1812, written when he was 23 years old] and the Mexican War [which Grant said was the transgression that led to our punishment in the Civil War] and head straight for the maelstrom of the American Civil War. If you want the story of the fighting itself, there is nothing better than what has been called "the American Iliad," Shelby Foote's three volume The Civil War: A Narrative.


6. Lincoln: A Novel, Gore Vidal



Yes, it's a novel, but it also might be the best biography of Lincoln; or, at least, the best way of becoming acquainted with the man. You cannot imagine my disappointment when I learned that Steven Spielberg was basing his movie on Lincoln on Doris Kearns Goodwin's book, and not this one. This novel, by the way, was fact-checked (and fully endorsed) by the ultimate Lincoln biographer, David Herbert Donald. After you read Lincoln, you should read Gore Vidal's Burr (which, in my opinion, is even better).


7. With Malice Toward None: A Life of Abraham Lincoln, Stephen B. Oates



Now that you've gotten your feet wet by reading Gore Vidal's Lincoln, you should read the best one-volume biography of Lincoln. Yes, yes, David Herbert Donald's biography is more comprehensive -- but it is also twice as long and not nearly so gracefully written.


8. The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane



You should hit "reset" on many of the books that you were told to read in high school and middle school. Some of them are actually worth reading, especially if you can manage to forget some of the forced "interpretations" and "creative exercises" you were assigned by your damn-fool of an "English Arts" teacher. Maybe you should start with some of Stephen Crane's poetry, just so you know he's no wuss.


9. Memoirs, Ulysses S. Grant



"What General Lee's feelings [at Appomattox] were I do not know. As he was a man of much dignity, with an impassible face, it was impossible to say whether he felt inwardly glad that the end had finally come, or felt sad over the result, and was too manly to show it. Whatever his feelings, they were entirely concealed from my observation; but my own feelings, which had been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse."


10. Up from Slavery, Booker T. Washington



"My whole life has largely been one of surprises. I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant, unexpected encouragements of this kind if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day of his life — that is, tries to make each day reach as nearly as possible the high-water mark of pure, unselfish, useful living." Imagine how the nation would be different if Franklin's autobiography and this one were central elements in some "Common Core" high school curriculum.

VMI Summer Reading (Unofficial): The American Revolution (1 to 5)

Here is a marvelously life-like image of the then 53-year-old Washington, sculpted by Jean Antoine Houdon from the life mask he cast when he visited Mount Vernon in 1785

 

 

Last summer I posted a couple of lists of recommended Summer Reading for College Guys. Those lists contained a total of 33 titles, some of which I will repeat this year. Once again, these are simply books that I have enjoyed and that I suspect most male undergraduates would also appreciate. This is a patently unofficial reading list -- the only connection with VMI is that I teach there and that this blog is frequented by some of my current and former students. I will present the books in groups of five over 10 posts, for a total of 50 titles.

 

Read often and well, for, as Peter Lawler of Berry College wrote, "reading is indispensable for beings with souls." Indeed, "compensatory bookishness" is the only remedy for your incomplete educations.

 

This year's Summer Reading list starts with five books concerning the American Revolution. Actually, it's basically three books about George Washington and two about Benjamin Franklin. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I think it's reasonable to expect American college graduates to be intimately familiar, even expert, on the lives of both Washington and Lincoln. Franklin is woefully neglected, probably because most primary and secondary teachers can't wrap their heads around him, leaving students exposed only to the superficial, and therefore, boring, Franklin.

 

 

1. 1776. David McCullough.

 

 

 

McCullough is a delightful writer and a fine non-academic historian. You can't go wrong with any of his books. This is a great choice for Books-on-Tape, too, because he has one of the greatest voices in the business; I could listen to him all day. Read his John Adams next, or Mornings on Horseback.

 

 

2. Washington's Crossing. David Hackett Fischer.

 

 

 

This is more the sort of book that your history professor would be proud to recommend to you. History profs might look down their noses at McCullough, because his books have sold millions of copies, and anything popular must not be good. Don't be dissuaded though -- the scholarship might be first rate, but the narrative is too.

 

 

3. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Franklin.

 

 

I would vote for this as mandatory reading for all incoming college freshmen (along with Homer's Iliad and Odyssey). It's short, it's funny, and it's incredibly practical and useful. Pick out just one of his life lessons from this book, practice it for a week, and see if you don't notice some significant improvement in your life.

 

 

4. Benjamin Franklin. Edmund S. Morgan.

 

 

 

Here's the scholarly account of Franklin, written in a stunningly masterful manner by an esteemed Yale historian. A biography as lively and ingenious as the man himself.

 

 

5. Washington: A Life. Ron Chernow.

 



 

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2011. As comprehensive and engaging single volume account of Washington as there is, to my knowledge.