Professor Elizabeth D. Samet, a civilian professor, teaches in the Dept. of English at West Post. Her thought-provoking book, Soldier's Heart, is subtitled "Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point." In 1997, she arrived at a peaceful West Point. After Sept. 11, 2001, she observed the changes at the school, both in the students and the curriculum. Her book questions her own role, and shares her observations as to what the study of literature and film provided the young men and women preparing for war; how literature helps them understand their complicated lives.
Even in 2006, facing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, knowing they would probably be sent there as lieutenants after graduation, Samet said, the "seniors remained strangely full of hope. Indeed, their attitude suggests to me that the romance of military life can withstand just about anything." Samet's comments about the idealism of her young students, destined to be officers and leaders, are fascinating.
Samet discovered that literature helped many of her former students through difficult times. After deployment, they often wrote to tell her what they were reading. She teaches Homer, Thucydides, Vergil. Poetry is popular with her cadets. Thoreau's Civil Disobedience is taught. T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom resonates with the cadets because of the current war.
I can't say enough about Soldier's Heart. Samet's book is beautiful. West Point brought her back to her own feelings of idealism, as she worked with young people who were committed to a shared mission. No matter how you feel about war, it's hard to not admire the young men and women who are preparing to lead. And, it's hard not to admire Elizabeth D. Samet, whose mission to teach humanity and understanding to those young people is revealed in Soldier's Heart.
Article comments
1 - Vikk Simmons
Nice review and you brought a book to my attention that I might have missed. Thank you.