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Title details for The Education of Corporal John Musgrave by John Musgrave - Available

The Education of Corporal John Musgrave

Vietnam and Its Aftermath

by John Musgrave
Ken Burns
Audiobook
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A Marine's searing and intimate story—"A passionate, fascinating, and deeply humane memoir of both war and of the hard work of citizenship and healing in war’s aftermath. A superb addition to our understanding of the Vietnam War, and of its lessons” (Phil Klay, author of Redeployment).
John Musgrave had a small-town midwestern childhood that embodied the idealized postwar America. Service, patriotism, faith, and civic pride were the values that guided his family and community, and like nearly all the boys he knew, Musgrave grew up looking forward to the day when he could enlist to serve his country as his father had done. There was no question in Musgrave’s mind: He was going to join the legendary Marine Corps as soon as he was eligible. In February of 1966, at age seventeen, during his senior year in high school, and with the Vietnam War already raging, he walked down to the local recruiting station, signed up, and set off for three years that would permanently reshape his life.
In this electrifying memoir, he renders his wartime experience with a powerful intimacy and immediacy: from the rude awakening of boot camp, to daily life in the Vietnam jungle, to a chest injury that very nearly killed him. Musgrave also vividly describes the difficulty of returning home to a society rife with antiwar sentiment, his own survivor's guilt, and the slow realization that he and his fellow veterans had been betrayed by the government they served. And he recounts how, ultimately, he found peace among his fellow veterans working to end the war. Musgrave writes honestly about his struggle to balance his deep love for the Marine Corps against his responsibility as a citizen to protect the very troops asked to protect America at all costs. Fiercely perceptive and candid, The Education of Corporal John Musgrave is one of the most powerful memoirs to emerge from the war.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 2, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593349397
      • File size: 277720 KB
      • Duration: 09:38:34

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 12, 2021
      In this sobering memoir, Musgrave (The Vietnam Years) revisits his tour in Vietnam and his advocacy against the war after surviving a grave injury. Musgrave grew up in 1950s Missouri and enlisted in the Marines at the age of 17. His first rude awakening came at boot camp, where recruits were verbally and physically abused. He endured the harsh treatment, and in 1967 was shipped off to Vietnam. There, Musgrave was forced to confront war’s messy realities, starting with killing the enemy. (“When I killed a man for the first time, I didn’t feel cool. I felt sick.”) Though he poignantly captures the rigors of jungle warfare, anyone remotely acquainted with Vietnam’s history may feel like they’ve heard this story before. After suffering a life-threatening chest wound, Musgrave returned stateside with a Purple Heart, but his status as a veteran made him a target for the anti-war movement. This exacerbated his own doubts about the war—prompted by the loss of lives he saw to friendly fire and the inferior firearms his squad was entrusted with—and led Musgrave to become a vocal opponent of the war. Musgrave is best at conveying life under fire, but despite a glowing foreword from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, his observations, while heartfelt, aren’t novel. It would be hard to mistake this for a new classic. Agent: Jay Mandel, WME.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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