Rating: 
Summary: uneven effort
Review: This is an interesting book, if only because it is highly improbably that it was written. The author, a self-styled intellectual Jew from New York City's Greenwich Village has had about as much to do with military culture as the Pope has had to do with porn. Which is to say that, prior to writing this book, Lipsky knew no soldiers, had no soldiers in his family, and probably was never on a military base.
Thus, it is interesting to read an account of military culture and life from the perspective of someone wholly foreign to the culture.
One of the hallmarks of military culture is its insularity and its differences from civialian life. The military uses all sorts of jargon that is completely foreign to those of us in civilian life, and Lipsky's repeated use of this jargon gets a little tiresome after a while. It would have been nice to have a glossary so that I could remember the difference between a "yuk" and a "firstie" (these are names given to different years of the West Point experience).
Rating: 
Summary: Could have been so good!!!!
Review: With some decent editing and organizing, this book could have been so good. I really wanted to love it. Instead, I found that it is a cursory set of observations and interviews, a bunch of vignettes with no depth. The development of a story was nonexistent. Beginning in 1998, Lipsky spent four years at West Point: attending classes; going into barracks and the mess hall; visiting the nearby towns with cadets; and watching all of the training. He followed one class from the day they entered through their graduation. During these years, he wanted to try to find out why so many bright young Americans give up so much to study here and become Army officers. Well, if he found out, he never informed his readers. In this almost totally anecdotal description of West Point, Lipsky describes a college environment unlike any "regular" college. He writes of the two conflicting value systems faced by these cadets: "huah", an all-purpose word comprising the military value system which emphasizes discipline, honor, duty, loyalty, courage, self-sacrifice, and controlled violence; versus society's value system with its emphasis on freedom, individuality, self-expression, pleasure, and monetary gain. Lipsky is there when "The Changes" are instituted, altering the rules, traditions, and the deprivation that had once seemed unchangeable. "The Changes" allowed phones, TV, and music in the cadets' rooms, and brought about the end of hazing, among other things. It was implied at the end of the book that some of these privileges might be changed in the future. One contradiction I noticed, which the author does not address, is that although it is widely accepted that a leader must be an independent thinker, this is not encouraged at West Point (nor at any of the military academies, for that matter). The message instead seems to be: be independent, lose your career. I think that Lipsky was so enamored of West Point that he found it difficult to perform any critical analysis of the weakness of the system. Although he does disclose some of the Academy's weaknesses, he does not try to find out why they exist nor how they could be changed or improved upon. He seemed unable to stand back and look at the place with objectivity. This book was full of fascinating information, but could have been much more compelling had it been better written. I also think a glossary would have been a helpful addition because of all the military terms and acronyms that were used. This was worth reading because it is about a fascinating place, as are all of our military academies, each in its own way. I am sure that equally interesting books could be written about each one. I just hope that authors of any future books which might be written about our military academies make an attempt to write more deeply, develop an organized format, and make an honest assessment of the institution.
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