Sources of History

The Quiet American

Posted on 11 August 2009

Whew.  Summer vacation??  I haven’t had a break in weeks.  Finally, I can share ideas about a book I learned of and am excited to see if I can integrate into the classroom.

Last month on the NPR program Here and Now there was an interesting interview with BU professor Andrew Bacevich on the Graham Greene’s novel The Quiet American (listen to it here).  The only Greene novel that I have read (back in high school English) was The Heart of the Matter.  It was in a junior year English class (in the dead of a New England winter …) where we read the text along other uplifting books such as The Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart.  I have never sought out another Greene novel, but the relevance of this text intrigued me.

Bacevich makes the argument in this interview, and his article published in World Affairs Journal, that Greene’s novel on American involvement in Vietnam after the departure of the French discusses themes that are parallel our current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The American mindset and abstract goals of our past continue to lead us to engage in conflicts that are difficult to “win.”  Americans also continue to believe that we are able to succeed where others have failed.

I have not read Greene’s novel but am anxious to pick it up.  This text seems like an interesting way to study how Americans conceptualize their role and purpose in the world community and how this concept has persisted in our history.  I am going to teach a unit on current issues in my US history course, which will fall after our study of the Cold War.  This text seems like it has possibilities to be used as a venue through which to view our current conflicts through the lens of our past actions and the threads that continue throughout American history.

Have you read this text?  Do you think it has applicability in the classroom?  I’ll continue this discussion after I have had a chance read this book.

And I promise the next post will be on something I’ve actually read!