They Marched Into Sunlight
Guest Post
(an email from Professor Peter S. Hoff, University of Maine, blogged with permission)
Dear Friends,
Most of you are probably way ahead of me in discovering David Maraniss’s magnificent book, They Marched into Sunlight, as I did last spring. It should speak to all Americans about the cultural and historical watershed that was Viet Nam and the Sixties. But it must speak especially poignantly to those who lived Viet Nam and who lived the upheaval on campuses like Madison.
For those who know Madison intimately, Maraniss’s book brings that era there to life again in the most vivid way imaginable. As he moves groups and even crowds from Sellery Hall to the Union, up Langdon Street, and of course to Bascom Hill and the Commerce Building, the smell of autumn leaves–and tear gas–comes alive.
And yet never does the college scene and the protest movement appear to be so romanticized that it eclipses the tragedy halfway around the world. The narration and character exposition is almost novelistic as Maraniss develops and interweaves the two stories–plus one inside the administration in Washington. The stories themselves are developed from extensive interviewing, not only of former troops, students, and administrators, but even former Vietnamese commanders. This is one of those rare books that I was unable to put down and read straight through.
The insights into administrative leadership challenges were also enlightening–both for brilliant strokes like Robben Fleming’s bailing out protesters with a personal check, and of course for blunders rendered obvious by hindsight.
I was so taken by They Marched into Sunlight that I will be using it to set the scene for a course in the Academic Novel, where I have selected books that all speak to the ways that higher education has changed because of the Civil Rights and Viet Nam eras: David Lodge’s Changing Places, Steven King’s Hearts in Atlantis, Richard Russo’s Straight Man, Philip Roth’s The Human Stain, and Tom Wolfe’s I Am Charlotte Simmons.
I just wanted to alert you to Maraniss’s book in case it had somehow eluded your attention, as it did mine for a couple of years. Maraniss has also written biographies of Bill Clinton and Vince Lombardi. He comes from a Madison family, where his father was an editor of the Capital Times. He himself is an associate editor of the Washington Post.
Enjoy!
Peter Hoff
