The Wars We Inherit.

I have never, ever read anything like Lori E. Amy's The Wars We Inherit: Military Life, Gender Violence, and Memory.

I placed it on hold during one of my monthly trolls through the New Nonfiction list my friendly local library publishes, simply because I often do read titles about the military. But whatever I was expecting, it wasn't this. I only read it this past weekend because it's coming up due, and I thought, I should at least see what it's about. I wasn't particularly in the mood to start it, or feeling like a book about the military or violence. Although I could put it down after I started it, I found myself reading it again the morning after I first picked it up--at five a.m., when I couldn't sleep.

I don't know what I was expecting, from the title, but I wasn't expecting a mix of memoir and scholarly dissertation on the nature of violence in our world and in all of our lives. Amy opens the narrative with several chapters about her own child- and young adulthood, describing in particular her relationship with her father Frank, and his relationship with her mother and his other children. Raised as an army brat, while Frank served in both Korea and Vietnam (and then on various bases throughout the country), Amy tells a (sometimes horrific) tale of sexual and psychological abuse. She doesn't go into great detail, choosing instead to focus on how she went about remembering her childhood, and talking with her other sisters and brothers to piece together the stories of their family life.

So, you say, it's an abuse memoir--there's (so sadly) tons of those. No. Where Amy takes this book into new territory is her use of her own history, including her marriage as a young woman to a Navy officer, to "illuminate the relationship between the violence that we experience in our homes and the ways that we organize our culture." (p. 1.) In the second half of the book, Amy continues to explore not only her own family dynamic--and the dynamics of her sisters' families--but she also, ambitiously, takes on broader issues of militarization, gender roles, and violence in all aspects of our society.

It's a work you have to take as a whole, and at 189 pages, it should be taken as a whole. But there is one part I can't resist quoting, as the author remembers an experience she had while she was teaching school in 1991:

"I heard about it during third period--that Todd's stepfather had come back from Kuwait, where his reserve unit had been deployed during the Persian Gulf War, with pictures. He has these pictures displayed in the auditorium, and studnets have been going in all day to look at them. Photographs of dead Iraqis--limbs missing, blood everywhere. I can't believe the high school principal let him bring these pictures to school, set up a public display. I can't believe this school is sending students in to look, with pride, at pictures of dead Iraqis. The boys come back from the auditorium, euphoric, happy, proud...What are we doing to these boys? They are children--fourteen, fifteen, sixteen--they don't even shave! And these words are coming out of their mouths, dehumanizations, obscenities. They are learning to forget that these are human beings they are looking at...

I told my students: This is wrong. This war, these deaths, these things are cause for grief, for mourning, not for celebration. I told the principal these pictures should not be displayed. I had my students watch the news, explained to them the history of the 1980s, when the United States was funding Saddam Hussein and building his army. I tried to give them some of the historical context of which they were completely ignorant--about the Shah of Iran, the revolution and the Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, the Iran-Iraq war. My students told their parents what I told them. Their parents compalined to the principal. The principal told me not to talk about the war anymore.

Amnesia. Denial. A blind patriotism that, in its blindness, loves killing." (pp. 122-123.)

I repeat: This is an extraordinary book. It is a university press book, but it belongs in every public library. Book groups should read it. Even if you don't agree with what the author is saying, I think you would have to agree that she is trying to be thoughtful and fair while she is saying it. In fact, speaking of high school, it should be required reading, along with Tom Bissell's The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam (Vintage Departures) and Theodore Nadelson's Trained to Kill: Soldiers at War.

Comments

[Venta]

Hey, CR! Is the Powell's partnership up and running?

[Citizen Reader]

Hi Venta!
It should be--today is the first day I tried to use their links, and you can tell from the way the picture is crammed in that I haven't quite figured it out yet.

Now, you--don't go trying to save the American economy by yourself. Even if I do link to Powells you know I would always suggest you get a book from the library first and see if it's something you want to buy. Okay? Although I did think of you when I read this. Man, it's a harsh read, though. Be careful with it.

[Venta]

How do you think this book stands next to other books about war written by women (e.g., Band of Sisters or Love My Rifle More than You)?

Although she had different experiences than Nadelson and Trained to Kill, it sounds like she is exploring the bizarre need to go to war and to be a warrior. I'm "looking forward" to reading this book regardless of where I get it!!

Is the Powell's partnership retroactive? Free shipping is important to me.

[Rachael]

This looks like an interesting read. I'm not a huge fan of trauma memoirs, but this sounds like it's far more than that. Also, that quote? Horrifying.

[Citizen Reader]

Venta,
I have not read "Band of Sisters," but it was much better than "Love My Rifle More Than You" (which I didn't care for, very much). But it's a slightly different book--Lori Amy wasn't in the military, but her father was and her ex-husband, and she looks at the culture and war and violence from the home and wife standpoint, which I found fascinating, and don't think is covered often enough.

From what I understand of the Powell's thing, if you follow my link initially or even later, you have 90 days to purchase and I'll still get a little kickback, so you would have some time (which is nice--the Powell's program is very slick, I must admit). Free shipping is always very important to me too so I fully support your desire to achieve that.

Rachael,
It is horrifying, but not in a glorifying way (if that makes any sense). A lot of her quotes are horrifying. At another point in the book, she states, when examining the connections between violence in war and the military and violence in the home, something like "violence always begets violence." And that's it, really. Say whatever you will about wars, that's the statement I'm going to think of.

[Jordan Retro 5]

Looking forward to knock at the door. Looking forward to the telephone. Looking forward to computer now. Looking forward to in dreamland. Wish to eye hair straight. Wish to heart to panic. Wish you on television. Wish you. Wish you on the newspaper. Wish you healthy body good fortune long. Hope hope ah! Hope. Installed in my heart.

[Supra skytop]

Good point, very insightful

[Someone]

Dr. Amy is a professor of mine and she is just as intelligent and insightful in person as she is in her writing. She's an outstanding professor and I pointed this article out to her. Thanks for this.
Personally I found the book to be so intriguing I finished it in a matter of days then passed it around to my friends.
I was lucky to have her as a professor this semester. And I'm taking her again next semester.
She is a very strong female who speaks her mind. We need more like her out there.
Here is her site if you want to know more about her:
http://personal.georgiasouthern.edu/~lamy/

[supra shoes]

Speech is the image of actions.

[louboutin shoes]

This looks like an interesting read. I'm not a huge fan of trauma memoirs, but this sounds like it's far more than that. Also, that quote? Horrifying.

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