June 2008    

Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front Author: Todd DePastino Publisher: W.W. Norton $27.95 Cloth (370 p.) ISBN: 9780393061833 B&T     MAJORS      YBP Willie & Joe: The WWII Years Editor: Todd Depastino Publisher: Fantagraphics Books $65.00 Cloth (692 p.) ISBN: 9781560978381 B&T     MAJORS      YBP I remember being fairly young when I found a copy of Bill Mauldin's Up Front on the bookshelf at home. At first, I just paid attention to the cartoons, but later I also read the text and it proved a perfect antidote to the Sgt. Rock comics and other ripping military yarns I was fond of reading at the time. It gave me, for the first time, an honest insight into what war was really like and a lasting appreciation for the people who could withstand it's bizarre combination of horror, tedium, and perverse fortune. I should have wondered what my father was doing with such a book because it was subversive in a way that my dad would not have appreciated had such ideas been coming from me, but I was either too stupid or too wise to raise the issue then. General George Patton hated Bill Mauldin, his attitude, and his cartoons. And my father was certainly more on the Patton side of issues like that. But that honest appraisal and representation of war is what endeared Mauldin to the thousands of soldiers who saw his work in Army papers and gave a voice to the "dogface" infantry soldier of WW II, speaking for them in a way they could not and helping them to relieve the stress of combat that few people back home at the time could have understood. (And likely would not have wanted to, if they knew of it.) Todd DePastino's excellent illustrated biography of Mauldin gives a complete view of a man who lived a complex, controversial, and at times contradictory life. And there was certainly a lot of living to cover. Mauldin began smoking at the age of three, yet lived to be eighty-one. He overcame a Depression-era childhood of harsh poverty and emotional abuse to become the youngest person ever to win a Pulitzer Prize, yet never finished high school. He was married three times, divorcing his first wife just five months after returning home from WW II, fathered his last child at the age of sixty-five with a wife 27 years his junior, yet was nursed through his last, Alzheimer's-afflicted years by that same first wife. He enlisted in the Army eighteen months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, yet went to Saudi Arabia as a journalist to cover the first Gulf War in 1990. He submitted hundreds of cartoons as a teen to the New Yorker, received hundreds of rejections, yet when Harold Ross finally offered to publish one after Mauldin gained his WW II fame, he turned Ross down. This biography gives full coverage to Mauldin's entire life, charting his amazing childhood, early fame in the immediate aftermath of WW II, and his post-war careers as memoirist, essayist, journalist, political cartoonist, screenwriter, actor, and congressional candidate. It also covers his development as an artist, noting the several phases his cartooning style went through. It tantalizingly mentions Mauldin's unfulfilled ideas for an illustrated edition of Huckleberry Finn, various novels and memoirs with illustrations that sound like what might have been early graphic novels had they come to fruition, and plans for animated "cartoon-a-torials" for CBS News. Mauldin even briefly collaborated with Ralph Bakshi on an animated Willie and Joe television series. Published to coincide with the biography is an equally well-done, two-volume slipcased edition of all the Willie and Joe cartoons, edited with an introduction and notes by the author of the biography. Many of these cartoons have never been published since their original appearance in Army publications and track Mauldin's growth as an artist and a commentator. They are also very funny, poignant, and timeless. Here you have the citizen-soldier, the dogface of WW II, the grunt of Vietnam, the National Guardsman on his third tour in Iraq. You have the honest, quiet valor without the phony, noisy glory. Bill Mauldin won a Purple Heart for what he considered an inconsequential wound in Italy in WW II. He talked all the rest of his life about the ones who didn't make it back and there is no small amount of survivor guilt in his work but he needn't have worried. He strove for honesty and fought hypocrisy his whole life and the soldiers he drew for appreciated it. When Mauldin was getting his last physical before his discharge from the Army, the doctor examining him couldn't even find the scar from the wound and sarcastically commented, "They gave you a medal for that?" The next soldier in line, who had more obvious scars from a half-dozen machine-gun bullets, lost his temper and said, "Christ, lieutenant, he didn't make the rules. We take what we're given and do what we're told." Bill Mauldin was loved by veterans for sharing their war at that level and trying to explain that to everyone back home. These two excellent books, either singly or together, will be appreciated by those interested in military history, graphic arts and political cartoons, or anyone who enjoys accounts of very interesting lives. Bill Maudlin certainly had one. Highly recommended. -- Rob Norton The New Education: Progressive Education One Hundred Years Ago Today Author: Scott Nearing Publisher: New Press $60.00 Cloth (199 p.) ISBN: 9781560978381 B&T     MAJORS      YBP How to Prepare Students for the Information Age and Global Marketplace: Creative Learning in Action Author: Lyn Lesch Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Education $50.00 Cloth (131 p.) ISBN: 9781578866953 B&T     MAJORS      YBP I started college "knowing" I was going to be a kindergarten teacher. Fortunately, I learned while still in college that I did not have the patience to work within the system in order to implement my radical agenda for reforming American education. Although I changed my undergrad major, I eventually got a graduate degree in early childhood because I thought it would offer me both the flexibility and control I wanted. This time I had to learn the hard way. My lifetime of working with individual children and families had not prepared me for the institutionalized system we have created for raising our young. In addition to not having the personality to handle that kind of stress, I came to disagree with the whole principle of large group childcare. Despite all my disenchantment with The System, though, my connection to education has the deepest of roots; and my interest in alternative educational philosophies is ever-present. Perhaps it should be surprising, all things considered, that I had never heard of Scott Nearing until a reprint of one of his books made it's way to my profiling cart. Since he was a radical social and political activist, environmentalist, and educator, he would have been an inspiring resource during my academic days. And yet it is not so surprising when you realize that, with all the other demands of teacher education programs, we only had time for the biggest and most influential names in the history of educational philosophy and theory. Nearing's The New Education offers a look at early 20th century changes in American education by describing both the innovations of his day and the ideological convictions behind those practices. Originally published in 1915, The New Education is based on articles written from 1910 to 1912 as Nearing traveled to various parts of the U.S. and reported on successful new programs in public schools in both rural and urban communities. These detailed descriptions make up about half of the book and provide examples to support the other half, in which he describes his comprehensive philosophy on the purposes and methods of an appropriate and successful education. Because he is both theoretical and explicit, The New Education is both informative and inspiring. It provides a chance to contemplate which past practices have endured with modification, why others have fallen out of fashion, and which may be worth reviving. It also explains the rationale behind Nearing's judgments of quality and success, many of which are still part of modern progressive ideologies. Within an hour or two of discovering Nearing's book, another intriguing book on educational theory landed on my desk. I had already decided to review Nearing, and I thought adding Lyn Lesch's book would be a fascinating opportunity to compare and contrast radical thinkers separated by almost a century. Lesch founded The Children's School in Evanston, IL, and was the director for almost ten years. The school had no pre-planned curriculum, allowing instead for experimentation and creativity in both teaching and learning. It is probably a good sign that many of the educational theories he espouses in How to Prepare Students are not new. It indicates that multiple educators over an extended period of time have repeatedly reached the same conclusions. There are many such parallels between Nearing and Lesch which transcend the differences between pre-WWI America and our current techno-global world. Both promote student-centered approaches, agreeing that schools and curricula should be modified to fit the students instead of expecting children to adapt to fit the mold of the education system. Both disagree with an educational system which revolves around standardized testing, advocating instead for teaching meaningful and authentic content and skills. Both are concerned with preparing students for the world in which they will find themselves when they are outside of the school. There are substantial differences, of course, only partially due to the differing historical contexts. Lesch concentrates on intellectual development and rigorous academics to enhance the education of the individual. His focus on critical thinking, creativity, innovation, and "the information age and global marketplace" are part of his mission to prepare students to fit into a world which values rapid progress for individual achievers. He takes for granted that digital access and technological skills are ubiquitous, failing to deal with the issue of the digital divide. Lesch does not seem to have dealt with the real issues which make reforming education so difficult. When his writing is at its peak of clarity and insight, it is inspiring; but, ironically, How to Prepare Students neglects supporting its arguments with clear examples or pragmatic applications for how to actually prepare students. Nearing is practical to a fault. He combines his concern with children as individuals with a focus on the role of education in creating useful and thoughtful citizens to promote programs which place a greater emphasis on trade-oriented and life skills with less attention to scholarly learning. Health, hygiene, home economics, and training in agricultural and trade skills receive more attention than better methods for teaching math, science, or reading. This is partly because of his concern with educating the whole person, which is an admirable goal. But it is also tied to a time when cultural norms did not include concepts we now value highly such as social mobility, sexual and racial equality, and integration of people with disabilities. While his concern for the role of education in building a better democracy and society is a hallmark of progressive thought, the years since he wrote The New Education have vastly changed what we consider a basic education for successful citizenship and a satisfying, productive life. Taken together these two books provide an excellent set of principles to replace our current No-School-Left-Unthreatened education policies. Lesch's arguments for a stronger academic program and for critical thinking as the most important skill for future success can be paired with Nearing's arguments for acknowledging the value of practical, non-academic skills to create a balanced, well-rounded curriculum. Nearing's emphasis on citizenship and making schools central to their communities complements Lesch's recognition that students can and will eventually participate in many levels of community including an increasingly cosmopolitan world. Nearing was a more enjoyable read for me, but I found myself nodding vehemently in agreement with both authors as I scribbled pages of notes on the important points they continuously made. Almost nothing of those notes can make its way into this kind of review, since my audience is not generally comprised of those who would use that information as they fight in the trenches of public education reform. But perhaps through a sort of six-degrees-of-influence chain of events my comments will bring Nearing or Lesch to those whose scribbled notes will make a difference. -- Angela Morgan Published by YBP Library Services 999 Maple St., Contoocook, NH 03229 USA v: 800.258.3774   f: 603.746.5628 w: www.ybp.com   e: academia@ybp.com All rights reserved.