Description
The importance of honor is present in the earliest records of civilization. Today, while it may still be an essential concept in Islamic cultures, in the West, honor has been disparaged and dismissed as obsolete. In this lively and authoritative book, James Bowman traces the curious and fascinating history of this ideal, from the Middle Ages through the Enlightenment and to the killing fields of World War I and the despair of Vietnam. Bowman reminds us that the fate of honor and the fate of morality and even manners are deeply interrelated.
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At West Point, the cadet finishing at the bottom of his class is dubbed a "Goat," a term chosen for its association with stubbornness, persistence, mischievousness and playfulness. Robbins (international relations, National Defense U., Washington, D.C.) presents a collection of profiles of Goats from the 19th century--when a Goat was something of a cult figure--interwoven with a social history of West Point and stories of the battles the Goats fought after leaving the academy, in the Civil War, the war with Mexico, and many of the Indian wars. Among the notable figures discussed are George Armstrong Custer, George Pickett, Jefferson Davis, Philip Sheridan, James Longstreet, and "washouts" such as Edgar Allan Poe and James McNeill Whistler who failed to complete their studies altogether. Academic but accessible to the general reader. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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