American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity - Paperback

by Christian G. Appy (Author)

The critically acclaimed author of Patriots offers profound insight into Vietnam's place in America's self-image

How did the Vietnam War change the way we think of ourselves as a people and a nation? In American Reckoning, Christian G. Appy--author of Patriots, the widely praised oral history of the Vietnam War--examines the war's realities and myths and its lasting impact on our national self-perception. Drawing on a vast variety of sources that range from movies, songs, and novels to official documents, media coverage, and contemporary commentary, Appy offers an original interpretation of the war and its far-reaching consequences for both our popular culture and our foreign policy. Authoritative, insightful, and controversial, urgently speaking to our role in the world today, American Reckoning invites us to grapple honestly with the conflicting lessons and legacies of the Vietnam War.

Author Biography

Christian G. Appy is a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the author of two previous books on the Vietnam War. His oral history of the war, Patriots, was a main selection of Book of the Month Club and won the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction. He lives in Amherst.