Victory Album

Philip D. Beidler is the William and Margaret Going Endowed Professor in English at the University of Alabama and the author of many works of cultural and literary criticism, among them The Island Called Paradise: Cuba in History, Literature, and the Arts; Late Thoughts on an Old War: The Legacy of Vietnam; First Books: The Printed Word and Cultural Formation in Early Alabama; and American Wars, American Peace: Notes from a Son of the Empire.

“A significant contribution to American letters. . . . Reading The Victory Album is like engaging a very interesting person in dialogue; by resting his arguments on so many items that are profoundly familiar to Americans, Beidler draws them into the conversation, making this very close to being an interactive book. Yet he never stops with the familiar, but uses it as a springboard to the insightful, taking the reader with him in a partnership of discovery.”—Jerome Klinkowitz, author of Kurt Vonnegut’s America and The American 1960's: Imaginative Acts in a Decade of Change| “[The Victory Album] comes off as some exemplary essay writing, which can be invaluable to a student like myself. No less invaluable is Beidler’s overall message about misconceptions.”—Anniston Star“An exceptionally fine collection of essays, engagingly written, unfailingly interesting, and full of insights into mid-20th-century American culture. The Victory Album is for a general educated audience and should be well received.” —Fred Hobson, author of Off the Rim: Basketball and Other Religions in a Carolina Childhood and Mencken: A Life