Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1818336 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Synopsis
What really goes on behind the Wall that surrounds the U.S. Naval Academy? What are all those midshipmen, future officers in the U.S. Naval and Marine Corps and leaders of American society, thinking as they stand in neat ranks at the parades that tourists love? What are their professors actually educating them to do? In Annapolis Autumn, Bruce Fleming, professor of English for nearly two decades at the Academy and prize-winning author, captures the sights, sounds, colours, and conversations of this tradition-steeped institution. In classes the cadets learn how to assemble guns, control armoured vehicles, man battleships, and kill other human beings. Nothing is ever less than "outstanding, Sir!" In English class, however, Fleming introduces his students to nuance and subtext, to the gap poets of World War 1, and to the idea that not every piece of literature is designed to be "motivational."

Sharing stories from his twenty years at the Academy, Fleming explores questions about teaching, the labels of "liberal" versus "conservative", and the ultimate purpose of higher education and issues made all the more gripping at a time when many of his students will graduate from the classroom to the battlefield.