Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness

Author Elizabeth D. Samet examines postwar literature, art, and culture, drawing from her expertise as a West Point professor. She exposes American identity confusion and national ambivalence toward war. Across film and literature, she finds the war’s legacy in mythologized figures like Ernie Pyle, pulp fiction GIs, disaffected Civil War veterans, and post-Vietnam military heroes. These figures reveal postwar attitudes toward violence, liberty, and nation, shaping domestic and foreign policy and responding to World War II assumptions about national identity and purpose. As the US reassesses its roles in Afghanistan and the Middle East, it’s time to rethink its national mythology, examining how World War II shaped its sense of destiny, military force use, and acceptance of modern conflict realities.

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