A review by mersell
Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness by Elizabeth D. Samet

5.0

In the American imagination, WWII was the war we entered for righteous reasons and to righteous ends. In about every war since then, we've tried to tie our valiant, violent efforts to some higher ideal, and laud our soldiers as magnificent heroes. But the reality is: war is fraught. It's a lot of bad that can result in good, but in no way guarantees it. And even WWII, our country was never entirely on the same page about. Isolationists who wanted America to stay out of Europe's affairs were a significant part of the American populace — and we didn't join the fight until Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor made clear we weren't safe just because we were oceans away. This book is a close analysis of the attitudes Americans held toward WWII at the time, as well as the ways we've mythologized that war and the generation that fought it — in an attempt, perhaps, to avoid the discomfort that is mixed-bag reality. The author, a professor at West Point, explores film and literature contemporary to the war, along with what's been made since. She also holds up the similar revisionist understanding of the Civil War that in some senses undergirds this mythologizing. This book is a masterclass in American myth that peels back layers of imagineering to stare at the brutal reality we've been dressing up this whole time.