Overview

This ethnography describes the intense contradictions that exist between the cultural values of American life and the cultural values needed to survive in combat, as represented through the experiences of forward-deployed U.S. Army units in Germany during the height of the Cold War. Living in constant military readiness, yet participating in peacetime community and family processes, Army personnel had to tolerate the contradictions and live by both sets of principles. In soldier perception, family life and community activities ought to have been guided by American rather than military values. Yet the military ran the community, and military activities penetrated and disrupted family life. In Germany the penetration and disruption was much exacerbated by isolation, for these Americans did not generally have the language or cultural skills to escape from the military community. Rather, they were marooned in an intensely judgmental fish bowl community where there was no private life. The resulting scrutiny and the measures people took to avoid it and sustain autonomy corrupted the community, its families, and the units themselves. The scrutiny, with its attendant risks, and the intense contradiction in values led to feelings of profound alienation.

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9780275967383

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From the perspective of an officer and psychiatrist, this is one of the most insightful and objective books that addresses numerous difficult and often controversial subjects comprehensively and objectively. Issues vital to flawless functioning of any major organization are accurately described. With leadership comes not only a sense of purpose but also organization and discipline; lack of these leads up to frustration, cynicism, and confusion--a phenomenon that we commonly observe in the Army these days. Very few insiders would dare to describe [the] existing situation within the system, ' as your book does. -Dr. George Pierozynski former Chief of Psychiatry and Neurology 5th General Hospital

This is a novel contribution to the fields of anthropology and sociology, but it also contains important lessons for the American military. . . . Academic collections. * Choice *

Author Information

John P. Hawkins is Professor of Anthropology at Brigham Young University. He is also a lieutenant colonel in the Medical Service Corps of the United States Army Reserve (retired as of August 2000) and has been a research associate of the Department of Military Psychiatry (now called Soldier and Family Studies), Division of Neuropsychiatry, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, since 1981. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1978 after completing field work on family, culture, and ethnic relations in western highland Guatemala.

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