ABOUT THIS BOOK

The American war in Vietnam was one of the most morally contentious events of the twentieth century, and it produced an extraordinary outpouring of poetry. Yet the complex ethical terrain of the conflict is remarkably underexplored, and the prodigious poetic voice of its American participants remains largely unheard. In A Shadow on Our Hearts, Adam Gilbert rectifies these oversights by utilizing the vast body of soldier-poetry to examine the war's core moral issues.

The soldier-poets provide important insights into the ethical dimensions of their physical and psychological surroundings before, during, and after the war. They also offer profound perspectives on the relationships between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people. From firsthand experiences, they reflect on what it meant to be witnesses, victims, and perpetrators of the war's violence. And they advance an uncompromising vision of moral responsibility that indicts a range of culprits for the harms caused by the conflict. Gilbert explores the powerful and perceptive work of these soldier-poets through the lens of morality and presents a radically alternative, deeply personal, and ethically penetrating account of the American war in Vietnam.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Adam Gilbert, a writer and historian, earned his PhD from the University of Cambridge and was a Leverhulme Fellow at the University of Sussex.

REVIEWS

"A Shadow on Our Hearts: Soldier-Poetry, Morality, and the American War in Vietnam is an ambitious book, which bridges three interrelated academic disciplines and attempts to fill gaps in each . . . Writing as a historian, Gilbert centers soldier and veteran poetry not only as literary texts, but as a critical part of the historical record of the war."—Journal of Veterans Studies

"A Shadow on Our Hearts is an exceedingly well researched and well written book that has been needed for decades: a thorough investigation into the morality of the war as seen and experienced and expressed by American combat participants."—Vince Gotera, author of Radical Visions: Poetry by Vietnam Veterans

"I highly recommend A Shadow on Our Hearts to all who have a serious interest in learning more about the Vietnam War and about the people who went off to that war, not knowing what to expect, but dealing with it when they got there the best they could."—The VVA Veteran

"This is the real deal—the big book on soldier-poetry of the Vietnam War that we have waited a half a century to get written."—Philip Beidler, author of American Literature and the Experience of Vietnam and Re-writing America: Vietnam Authors in Their Generation

"Gilbert uses the poets' voices to capture the horrors of war with such clarity and honesty that the effect is sobering. We feel the war in ways that standard historical narratives cannot quite capture, while still receiving thoughtful historical analysis from Gilbert . . . [T]his book will prove useful to scholars of the Vietnam conflict and of American history but also to those in other humanities disciplines such as literature, philosophy, and psychology."—Journal of American Culture

"Gilbert asserts that his study is not meant to be taken as a literary analysis; the many poets and poems that he reads . . . illuminate intersecting moral and historical questions. For Gilbert, this body of poetry is an overlooked reservoir of knowledge bearing witness to the experience of US soldiers in Vietnam."—American Literary History

"Winnowing the poetic immensity to twenty-ï¬ve poets listed in an appendix, Gilbert reads the poems he has selected in order to show how the American war in Vietnam was not only a defeat for the United States but 'a moral failure.'"—American Literature

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionMorality and HistoryRebels and WitnessesPublishing Hearts and Minds1. ClimatesThinking about ClimatesMaking SoldiersThe Nature of WarFearDoubtThe New World2. OthersThinking about OthersUs and ThemThe Stranger WithinAllies and EnemiesDistinctionsBreakthroughs3. ViolenceThinking about ViolenceBodiesKilling in WarRejection and ResistanceAtrocitiesTechnology4. ResponsibilityThinking about ResponsibilityThe Usual SuspectsThe Business of WarAmerica and AmericansSoldiers and VeteransPerpetual WarWreckageAppendix A: The PoetsAppendix B: The PoemsNotes