Civil War: Army Vs. Navy-A Year Inside College Footballªs Purest Rivalry

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Summary: Another excellent Feinstein book
Review: I am a minimal fan of Army-Navy football. However, Feinstein really drew me in, like he always does, and towards the end, I couldn't stop reading his account of the Army-Navy game. Packed with all kinds of insight into life at a military academy. A great glimpse into a special tradition.

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Summary: OK, it's a cliche, but this book: A MUST READ!
Review: I am a retired army colonel (not an academy grad) and love college football...but, except for once a year when they play each other, don't follow the teams as I am a HUGE Notre Dame fan. This book is about so much more than football. It is about the young men at the academies who--after you read this book--will truly give you a sense of what college football should be. And you'll feel like the opponent Feinstein quotes who after defeating one of the academy teams says that he's glad the national security is in the hands of young men like these. In fact, I was so moved by this book that during last week's Notre Dame-Navy game, I wanted Navy to win. Read this book...and then give it to a teenager you love.

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Summary: A must for any football fan.
Review: I had no idea what the Cadets and Midshipmen endured to play football and attend these fine military colleges. The book captures the spirit of these fine young men. The stories on the individual players were excellent. I was pulling for both teams and the players throughout the book. I will be watching the Army-Navy game for years to come.

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Summary: Should have been a best-seller!
Review: I have never read a book so detailed of college athletics. I am not an avid reader, but I just couldn't seem to put the book down. It started out as a school project but then i read it any time I got the chance. I'm in eighth grade and to me it was a large book, but I liked it so much I finished it in just over a week! If you're looking for a book about college football this is the one to read!

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Summary: One of Feinstein's Best
Review: I have read all of John Feinstein's books on sports and this is one of his best, perhaps only second to "Season On The Brink." Personally, I had no interest in the Army-Navy battle before I read this book. But Feinstein takes you inside both schools to show why this game means so much to these students. These are not necessarily the blue chip athletes we hear about all the time, they are young men playing for pride and leaving it all on the line when they step on the football field. I'm hooked to this rivalry now, as much as Alabama-Auburn and Ohio State-Michigan. If you're a fan of any sport, especially college football, you will love this book and won't be able to put it down.

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Summary: A fun journey
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a magnificant journey through the 1995 season with 2 of the most prestigious football programs in the country. We get a first hand view of what it is like to go to a military school first of all, but to also play football while at that military school. We also get a glimpse of what it was like when the 2 programs were in their hayday and people actually wanted to play at these schools. There was once a time where they dominated and all of the great players went to the military academies. Today, with high salaries and mandatory service, it is unlikely for an all american to attend one of these schools. The cadets know that the end of their football career comes with the end of their college schooling, and that makes the losses hurt that much more. Follow the players through their push through the season against some of the nation's powerhouses. You won't be sorry.

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Summary: A great insight into traditional college football
Review: I really have enjoyed John Feinstein's writings, & commentaries on NPR, & this was no exception. It made me sorry I didn't go harder after a USNA appointment 30+ years ago. My only bone I must pick: I happen to be very familiar one of the teams Army played during the 1995 season, and except for my local team's quarterback, Feinstein got the first name of every player from my team wrong. Not misspelled, but flat out wrong. He also got the first name of Boston College's QB wrong. It makes me wonder, what else could he have erred on? Still, this takes me back to those "boys own" books I read when I was young, about plebes and yearlings winning the big game for the Middies or the Black Knights, and to the hours I spent pouring over my Grandfather's Naval Institute Proceedings. It makes me sorry that I've never been to a Navy-Army game, but like the hopes of these two schools, there's always next year, and damn, I wish the Middies could have held off Notre Dame this season!

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Summary: Duty... Honor... Country... Sport... IN THAT ORDER
Review: If you are looking for a story of selfish, maladjusted, spoiled, law-bending athletes... this isn't it. No Lawrence Philips or Peter Warwicks here. No chest-thumping, trash-talking, pampered delinquents. No BCS hype, big-time budgets, or recruiting violations. Feinstein reveals dedicated young men -- many of whom are overachievers -- who accept sport in its broader context. While not perfect, we read the story of young men dedicated to an end that is greater than the sum of its parts. I will never watch Army, Navy (and, yes, Air Force) play again without honoring in my thoughts what these young men give day in and day out. Every high school and college athlete should read this book. Beyond football's "purest rivalry," Army-Navy is football (sport) like it ought to be.

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Summary: If you want to understand the Army/Navy mystique, read this.
Review: If you want to understand a big part of the midshipman/cadet experience, you need to understand the A/N football game and Feinstein does a great job explaining it. As he tells you about two teams of dedicated athletes who play for the love of the game and the pride of their school, with little hope of going on in the athletic world, he also goes into the traditions of two great schools and the bond that the men and women there have with each other and their schools. My daughter Lisa, a '94 midshipman, is mentioned in the book and would have been proud to read it. I don't usually like to read about football; I prefer to watch it. However, not only was this book an exception, it was also one of the best books about the Army/Navy experience that I've ever read.

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Summary: More than just a sports story
Review: John Feinstein is, with the possible exception of George Plimpton, the most pompous sportwriter in America. Having said that, he has written the best sports book of the late 1990s. "A Civil War," is about much more than just the Army-Navy game. It is about life in the service academies and how a special group of recruits truly do play just for the love of the game. Feinstein lucked out a chose a (very) rare season in which both Army and Navy made it to bowl games. The Army-Navy game itself that year was also a heartbreaker. There are so many good individual stories among the players that you will swear he made some of them up. This is sportswriting at its absolute best.