Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness

On the nature and meaning of war, on its impact on individuals and the nation, Elizabeth D. Samet’s voice is clear, poetic, insightful and necessary. What makes a “noble” war? Or the “greatest” generation? Does it matter? Looking for the Good War makes an eloquent case that it very much does, that it is time we understand the myths we tell ourselves to justify sending soldiers into battle. That Samet teaches literature to cadets at West Point lends a personal, urgent intimacy to her words.