Arms and the Self

War, armed conflict in general, and military service have likely inspired more textual testimonies than any other human event. Wars shatter every boundary imaginable―from national boundaries to bodily ones―confusing distinctions between social castes as well as between friends and foes, men and women, humans and animals, humans and machines, and even the living and the dead, making it difficult to classify what texts actually fall into the category “military autobiography.” With its wide range of primary texts to demonstrate the many conflicts, author-participants, and interpretive perspectives, Arms and the Self provides an eclectic, suggestive perspective on this complex and varied field. With contributing authors such as Lynn Z. Bloom, Margaretta Jolly, Robert Lawson-Peebles, and Robert Shenk, the critical essays extend from Xenophon’s memoir of his two years marching with the mercenaries of the Persian Prince Cyrus, through Canadian accounts of the Boer War and American civilian women’s narratives of confinement in WWII Japanese internment camps, to Vietnam veterans’ online testimonials and post–Persian Gulf War memoirs written as management primers. This thought-provoking collection adds significantly to the critical canon of military autobiography. With a helpful introduction and an extensive bibliography, Arms and the Self is an excellent tool for those interested in the literature of war and autobiographical writing.

Alex Vernon is assistant professor of English and chair of American Studies at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. He is author of most succinctly bred (The Kent State University State University Press, 2006) and Soldiers Once and Still: Ernest Hemingway, James Salter, and Tim O’Brien (2004), and coauthor of The Eyes of Orion: Five Tank Lieutenants in the Persian Gulf War (The Kent State University Press, 1999).