Rating: 
Summary: Grabs you and doesn't let go!
Review: A fantastic look into four years of life at West Point and in the Army for 4,000 cadets and officers. Everything from plebe summer through firstie year and on into army life as an officer are depicted with vivid first hand accounts. An account of army life before, during, and after 9/11 not to be missed!
Rating:
Summary: Proud to be an American
Review: In 2000, I attended a football game @ West Point. In addition to finding the campus awe-inspiring, I was impressed with the camradre of the cadets we conversed with as well as their demeanor. This book does a fantastic job of detailing the West Point experience. Examples of significant items covered include: West Point's evolving role in the new Army and the politics involved, drugs and alcohol usage, female enrollment and issues, and Plebe hazing.What this book does spectacularly well is track cadets for the 4 year period through West Point to their initial assignments in the military. It reads like a soap opera. Top flight leadership candidates are tripped dating fellow cadets. Top graduates struggle with balancing girlfriends and family and lose their competitive edge in their first assignments after West Point and take lower profile assignments. While there are many cadets tracked throughout the book, my two favorite stories were George Rast, the candidate just trying to get by who they attempted to run out of West Point all four years, and Huck Finn, the football player from Lousiana who has a major transformation in personal growth. The in-depth analysis of the various commanders is also very touching as we get to see one leader "take the fall" to maintain his personal principals when it wasn't necessary. The fact that this book overlaps the 9/11/01 incident only heightens the experience of being a voyeur of the Academy. This book will make you proud to be an American watching these kids grow into exceptional young men and women with varying degrees of belief in a career as an Army officer. Some of these stories reduced me to tears and I believe you will find them as touching. BUY THIS BOOK. ADDENDUM: In 2000 I attended an Army football game. Here is the Internet Article I wrote that provoked my reading of this book. DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY
Memphis at Army Why is a trip to West Point considered the epitome of the college football experience as voted by Sporting News, Sports Illustrated and others? Set on the Hudson River at a particularly high and beautiful spot, the campus may be the most beautiful in America. The rolling hills, littered with rocks and trees set high over the Hudson were a great starting point to build the very old, but perfectly preserved stone buildings on this campus originally formed in 1802. But the perfect college campus is much more than a physical layout. The mystic and school spirit permeate the campus like a hidden ghost. And no campus in America has this more than West Point. Not Notre Dame. Not Harvard, Yale or Princeton. And certainly not any state school. Football Saturday starts with the 10:00 parade on the Plains surrounded by the stone buildings to the West and the Hudson River to the North and East. There is no better place than here to come in contact with the spirit of the United States of America and the commitment made by so many to preserve it's heritage. You find yourself wanting to thank these eighteen year-old cadets for the commitment they are making to preserve American freedom and values. The parade is built around the marching band, not "state school" sized, but big enough to perfectly capture the music of the country. After the band's march to playing position, regiments of cadets magically emerge from openings in the architecturally gifted campus buildings. Dressed in their gray multi-buttoned dress shirts, white pants and black top hats with plume, they strike an opposing contrast to the stone buildings. Surprisingly, Navy and Air Force cadets participate on a selected basis in an exchange program and march intermingled with the cadets forming a united front as the band plays the anthem from all four armed services. Following these rousing renditions, the band breaks into the Tiger fight song on this day for the benefit of their esteemed guests. In perfect unison with swords or guns drawn the regiments pass the grandstand. Civilians are instructed in proper etiquette as the parade builds to the playing of the national anthem and presenting of the colors. Maybe if you see this enough, the pride and patriotism become mundane and your eyes don't water and the lump leaves your throat. But maybe, if your lucky, it doesn't and you stand there thankful that you were able to experience this and more fully understand what makes this country great. And maybe now you understand the commitment these outstanding young men and women have undertaken to follow in the footsteps of Dwight Eisenhower, Norman Schwarzkof and Douglas MacArthur, not to mention Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant.
As the parade ends, tailgating resumes on this 16,000-acre campus. No one is concerned with what other teams are doing on this day as you occasionally catch a mother visiting her cadet son or two West Point alumnus from the 1960's catching up on where their travels have taken them in the last 30 years. But in three hours you're in for another treat as 40,000 people cram into the stadium constructed in 1925 next to Lusk Reservoir and surrounded by hills. Almost all of the 4,000 cadets are in required attendance as they march in together followed by their pep band, three mules and "golf cart" cannon. The school spirit is incredible and it's difficult to focus on the game while enjoying the antics of the young cadets who just an hour earlier would have gone out of their way to answer questions and point out sites of interest while making sure to punctuate each sentence with multiple "sirs" in a sign of respect. And with this atmosphere as a background, you struggle to root against this quality opponent who is there to actively engage in competitive sportsmanship to prove their manhood and nothing more. There will be no vulgarity or arguments about strategy and coaching acumen. Just the friendly, but fierce battle. Just as it was meant to be by our forefathers who started the game in the late 1800's. And how do you end a perfect trip to West Point? By driving away and watching the remaining West Point tailgaters wave with a smile on their face as they await the next day they will line up for another fierce, but friendly battle. Oh, Memphis won. But that's not important.
Rating:
Summary: Leadership
Review: The West Point immersion converts a select group of high school seniors into officers in the US Army over a 4 period. The transition that occurs is at times amazing. This is due in part to clear goals, an unrelenting adherence to a code of ethics and conduct, fine instructors and a rich history. As students progress through the program, they themselves become part of the experience for the underclassmen. Developing leaders, esp those 80% who will join combat units, is a daunting experience for cadet and instructor alike. Lipsky's book describes this in fine detail for the class of 2002 - from plebes to firsties and includes a few who were separated (dismissed) along the way. The book provides a fascinating description of the process used to produce military leaders. Would I follow Huck Finn or Whitey Herzog into combat? Hoah!, Sir.
Rating:
Summary: All the Gain Without the Pain
Review: I would never have the guts to attempt going to West Point, so Lipsky's eloquent description of what life there is really like hit home. He lucked out in following people who, over the course of four years, turned out to have life changing things happen to them. There are surprises throughout, and the suspense builds as the careers of these future leaders are put on the line. Lipsky is a master story teller and I can now identify much more closely with the officers who are on the news every night, enabling us back home to live comfortable lives.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: David Lipsky really has given those of us outside of the military an idea of what life is like within the walls of West Point. Illustrating good and bad, it gives, without social commentary, great descriptions of the struggles that cadets go through and helps show why West Point is one of the finest institutions of higher learning in the United States. I thought that places where students are placed through true trials and tribulations, where character is tested and developed, where academics are taught with idealistic fervor by professors who have real-world international experience no longer existed. It puts our Harvards and Yales to shame, actually, and shows why so many of America's best and brightest come from West Point. Interesting, inciteful, and often humerous.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: As the author describes in Absolutely American, a favorite saying of Graduates is " The Corps has.." (implied gone to hell). Cadets have been saying for generations that West Point represents 200 years unhampered by progress.
The amazing thing about the Academy is that for 200 years this institution has been graduating leaders - a benchmark of consistency within a world of change.
The Academy has changed in quite a few ways as Donald Lipsky gives an accurate snapshot of the Academy today and gives us a good crossection representation of Academy life. In my opinion, the largest change over the past 20 years is the focus on professionalism and meeting standards although I was amused to see that walking the area is making a comeback.
I was rooting for the characters as the author views West Point through the eyes of the Cadets. West Point is and has always been very effective in focusing on any cadet's area of weakness and driving improvement. The mechanisms for accomplishing this have been modified but the Cadet struggles and the commitment necessary to graduate are the same and make an interesting read.
This book was also timely in light of the issues at the Naval and Air Force Academies. Reading between the lines one can determine why West Point has been largely successful in avoiding the same outside cultural issues experienced by the sister academies.
Overall a great read and description of a great American institution, and truly unique 4 year experience.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read-ABSOLUTELY Wonderful!!
Review: I simply could not put this book down. It gave an "outsider" a view of the insider. The book shows the "personal" side of West Point. If I would have been a year younger when I had read the book, I would have applied! I am going to visit West Point this weekend.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a Gripping Read, don't bother.
Review: In Absolutely American, Lipsky's pedigree as a magazine writer shows through. The story lines doesn't hang together for more than a few pages at a time and the writing has no depth, feeling or analysis. Lipsky introduces themes that either contradict something he has previously written, (when one cadet struggles, Lipsky first writes that he's shunned, then writes about how his classmates band together to help him pass) or never develop beyond just a cursory description (The Goodfellas "crew" story never develops beyond just a bunch of kids hanging out, what particular relevance that has to USMA escapes me). This book is pretty superficial, it's like trying to read an episode of "The Real World", you see small snippets of what's actually going on and none of it gives you any kind of idea of what the whole picture is supposed to look like. Lipsky seems to have missed that, unlike magazines or TV, books are supposed to have a story line, it's also nice if they have some depth, consistency, story development and better editing (yep, some typos in there). I never found myself really enjoying this book but rather just wondering where the last piece of data that I read fitted into the overall story. Lipsky claims to have spent 4 years following cadets through their school careers so I'm sure he's got a lot of data, it's just too bad that he chose to present it so poorly. I find it unsurprising that this book reads like a bunch of magazine columns pasted together. I'm sure that the story of the process of entry, life at and life beyond the USMA is both interesting and compelling, "Absolutely American" pretty much fails to be either.
Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ!!
Review: This book may be the best book I have ever read. I will make the most Army hating person, want to stand up and go to West Point. The stories of these cadets were truly inspiring, and you could see how ppl from all walks of life came together.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Insight into Education
Review: Most people will pick this book up because it is about the military academy, emphasis on "military." But what I found so interesting were Lipsky's descriptions how an excellent academic institution operates. There are lessons for our society, especially today when pressures on higher education have never been greater.
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