When I Was a Young Man: A Memoir by Bob Kerrey

Kerrey, the former Nebraska senator, touched off controversy when, in 2001, he admitted to having taken part in a Vietnam War incident in which women and children had been killed. That terrible event stands at the center of this book, which, among other things, offers a sharp critique of the conduct of the war; Kerrey writes that it "could not be won because we focused too much on stopping communism and too little on building a free and independent nation." But Kerrey's absorbing memoir, written at a distance of four decades, touches on much more: the lost virtues of 1950s America, small-town life in the heartland, the nature of heroism and patriotism, the camaraderie and sorrow born of combat, and the need to remember the past.

Joining the work of Tim O'Brien, Philip Caputo, and other eyewitnesses, Kerrey's account presents grim proof that war is "not what our slogans, propaganda, and childhood fantasies have taught us to believe." --Gregory McNamee