Countess: Vietnam War Era: Books

Subject Headings

Libraries use what we call “Subject Headings” to help classify (i.e. categorize) resources. When you are using Countess, our library’s online catalogue (or using any library’s catalogue for that matter), take notice of the subject headings being used for your topic. Like most libraries, we use Library of Congress (LC) subject headings. These can help you narrow or broaden your topic to find resources more relevant to your research. Below is a sampling of the LC subject headings used for the Vietnam War (notice that the word “Conflict” is sometimes used rather than “War” … this is a subtle but important distinction that in itself could serve as a research topic) and for author Tim O’Brien and his work.

Vietnamese Conflict,1961-1975

Vietnam War,1961-1975

Subject Headings that can help Narrow your research:

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Juvenile literature.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Literature and the war.
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Moral and ethical aspects

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Public opinion.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Veterans.

Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--African Americans.

Vietnamese Conflict,--1961-1975--Art and the conflict.

Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Atrocities.

Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Campaigns--Fiction.

Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Destruction and pillage--Vietnam--Quang Tin.

Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Draft resisters--United States.

Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Economic aspects--United States.

Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Literature and the conflict.

Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Motion pictures and the conflict.
Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Journalists.
Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Music and the conflict.
Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American.

Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, North Vietnamese.

Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, Viet Cong.

Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Poetry.

Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Protest movements--United States.

Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--Social aspects.
Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975—Women—Interviews.

Fonda, Jane, 1937-

Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Khe Sanh, Battle of, Vietnam, 1968--Fiction.

McNamara, Robert S., 1916-

My Lai Massacre, Vietnam, 1968

National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum.

O'Brien, Tim, 1946- Things they carried.

O'Brien, Tim, 1946-

Subject Headings that can help Broaden your research:

Counterculture--United States--History--20th century--Drama.
Conscientious objectors--Drama.

Freedom of speech--United States--History.

Military art and science--United States--History--20th century.
Music--Social aspects.

Masculinity--United States--History--20th century.

Patriarchy--United States--History--20th century.

Peace movements--Fiction.

Psychological fiction.

Sex role--United States--History--20th century.

United States--Economic conditions--1961-1971.

United States--History--1945-

United States. Marine Corps--Fiction.

United States--Military policy.
United States--Military relations.

Veterans--Religious life--United States.

Veterans--United States--Political activity--History--20th century.

War--Religious aspects--Christianity.

War films--United States--History and criticism.

War stories, American--History and criticism.

Circulating Collection

"Reading the wind" : the literature of the Vietnam war : an interpretative critique by by Timothy J. Lomperis ; a bibliographic commentary by John Clark Pratt.
Call Number: 810.9358 L846r , 1987
ISBN: 0822307499
A political scientist quotes and summarizes from a conference on fiction and poetry about the Vietnam tragedy.
10,000 days of thunder : a history of the Vietnam War by Philip Caputo
Call Number: Juv. 959.7043 C255t , 2005
ISBN: 0689862318
Publication Date: http://huntingdoncollege.worldcat.org/title/10000-days-of-thunder-a-history-of-the-vietnam-war/oclc/
It was the war that lasted ten thousand days. The war that inspired scores of songs. The war that sparked dozens of riots. And in this stirring chronicle, Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist Philip Caputo writes about our country's most controversial war -- the Vietnam War -- for young readers. -- Google Books
A Different war : Vietnam in art by Lucy R. Lippard
Call Number: 704.9499597043 L765d , 1990
ISBN: 0941104435
" ... The art works in this well-titled exhibition collectively capture the rage, injustices, and turmoil that made Vietnam an American tragedy. Whether made by a recognized contemporary artist or by an unknown, the works--executed in various media--represent shared anger and a strongly delivered message: this war was senseless and unnecessary ..." -- Library Journal (David Bryant)
A Rumor of war by Philip Caputo
Call Number: 959.70438 C255r
ISBN: 080504695X
Caputo arrived in Danang with the Marines in 1965 during the early ""confident, complacent"" days when hardly anyone took the Vietcong seriously. When he left a year later the romance had gone out of the splendid little war, the erosion of idealism was well under way, and a sense of futility had crept over the soldiers like the Vietnam mud. He writes with the sangfroid appropriate to a Marine ... More officer and the acuity of a professional journalist--which, after his return stateside, he became. Caputo neither screams of horrors and outrages nor recoils from them. -- Kirkus Reviews
Bloods, an oral history of the Vietnam War / by Black veterans by edited by Wallace Terry
Call Number: 959.7043 B655T3
ISBN: 0345311973
A "New York Times" Notable Book, his classic, powerful book--a nationally bestselling firsthand account of 20 African-American men who served in the Vietnam War--is available once again. -- Google Books
Campus wars: the peace movement at American state universities in the Vietnam era by Kenneth J. Heineman
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 0814735126
"Heineman's prodigious research in a variety of sources allows him to deal with matters of class, gender, and religion, as well as ideology. He convincingly demonstrates that, just as state universities represented the heartland of America, so their student protest movements illustrated the real depth of the anguish over US involvement in Vietnam. Highly recommended."
—Choice
Confronting the war machine: draft resistance during the Vietnam War by Michael S. Foley
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 0807854360
"Impressive... a vibrant, first-rate scholarly study." -- New England Quarterly
Dear Dr. Spock : letters about the Vietnam War to America's favorite baby doctor by edited by Michael S. Foley
Call Number: 959.7043373 D285F6 , 2005
ISBN: 0814727433
"Foley has discovered a unique source on the American home front during the Vietnam War, a perspective that moves us past the usual images of angry polarization. These powerful letters help us to consider how war-times induce people to look with new eyes at their nation and their government."
—David Farber, author of THE AGE OF GREAT DREAMS: AMERICA IN THE 1960s
The Economic consequences of the Vietnam war by Anthony S. Campagna
Call Number: 973.923 C186e 1991
ISBN: 0275938166
Campagna examines the increasing influence the war had on the economy as it progressed, and the immediate policy responses that formed the government reaction. The impact to the economic system is presented in a chronological fashion, describing how the economy was affected during the war years, and how, in the aftermath, it was permanently altered. The book addresses the costs and benefits of the war in a sequential manner, and is written in a non-technical style. -- Google Books
Everything we had : an oral history of the Vietnam War / by thirty-three American soldiers who fought it by edited by Al Santoli
Call Number: 959.7043373 S237e
ISBN: 088103391X
Spontaneous tape-recorded interviews with combat veterans reveal the horror and poignancy of their war in Vietnam and bring home that war's violence, intimacy, and unresolved trauma. -- from Google Books
The Fifth book of peace by Maxine Hong Kingston
Call Number: 813.54 K55f 2003
ISBN: 0679440755
In the middle section of this book, Kingston reconstructs for us her lost novel, the lush and compelling story of the Chinese-American Wittman Ah Sing and his wife, Tana - California artists who flee to Hawaii to evade the draft during the Vietnam War. Wittman and Tana help to create an official Sanctuary for deserters and GIs who've returned devastated by their experiences in Vietnam - not unlike, as it turns out, the metamorphical sanctuary Maxine creates, back in her real world, by inviting war veterans to participate in writing workshops. As the vets share their stories, she teaches them both the value of writing - the accurate transcription of what is in the heart - and the value of community. -- Google Books
From Hanoi to Hollywood : the Vietnam War in American film by edited by Linda Dittmar and Gene Michaud
Call Number: 791.43658 F931D6
ISBN: 0813515874
The essays in this volume deal with representations of the Vietnam war in documentary film and television reporting, examining the ways the power of film is used to deliver political messages. -- from Google Books
The Making of a hero; the story of Lieut. William Calley Jr. by Wayne Greenhaw
Call Number: 959.70432 G813m Ala.
The My Lai massacre in American history and memory by Kendrick Oliver
Call Number: 959.7043373 O486m , 2006
ISBN: 0719068908
he social and political intricacies of the way in which the massacre was investigated and reported are explored in a convincing and thought-provoking way, and this book constitutes a significant contribution both to understanding America’s memory of the Vietnam War, and also to how that memory has shaped the U.S’s subsequent military encounters. --Claire Stocks, University of Oxford
The Night travellers by Elizabeth Spencer
Call Number: 813.54 S745n , 2002
ISBN: 0807127922
A haunting examination of another group of casualties of Vietnam--those who protested the war, evaded the draft, and became displaced (sometimes with loved ones) in Canada. ... The elements which distinguish Spencer's fiction are here: richly plotted narrative told in diverse voices, with fluid shifts in time and a keen sense of place, and prose remarkable for its clarity and style. Here the subject is worthy of her art. -- Library Journal (Michele Leber) [Spencer is a former Huntingdon College Stallworth Lecturer]
Out of the night : the spiritual journey of Vietnam vets by William P. Mahedy
Call Number: 248.86 M214o
ISBN: 1596770031
"Mahedy was an army chaplain in Vietnam and later codesigned the Vietnam Vet Centers program for President Carter. In this book he considers the spiritual questions asked by veterans he counseled, the principal one being, "Where was God in Vietnam?" In refreshingly nonsermonizing fashion, he discusses the God of myth and the God of scripture, and goes on to make distinctions between what he believes are divinely generated events and those God allows to happen...: -- Publisher's Weekly
Perilous times : free speech in wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the war on terrorism by Geoffrey R. Stone
Call Number: 323.4430973 S877p , 2004
ISBN: 0393058808
Geoffrey Stone's "Perilous Times incisively investigates how the First Amendment and other civil liberties have been compromised in America during wartime. Stone delineates the consistent suppression of free speech in six historical periods from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the Vietnam War, and ends with a coda that examines the state of civil liberties in the Bush era. -- Google Books
The Remasculinization of America : gender and the Vietnam War by Susan Jeffords
Call Number: 305.30973 J45r
ISBN: 0253331889
The Scar that binds American culture and the Vietnam War by Keith Beattie
Call Number: e-book, also available in print : 959.7043373
ISBN: 0814713262
"Bold. . . . The greatest pleasure the book offers is the often thought-provoking close reading of both familiar and long-forgotten movies and fiction of the Vietnam War era."
--The Journal of American History
Songs of the Vietnam conflict by James E. Perone
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 0313315280
A Trauma artist : Tim O'Brien and the fiction of Vietnam by Mark A. Heberle
Call Number: 813.54 H445t , 2001
ISBN: 0877457611
The Turning: a history of Vietnam Veterans Against the War by Andrew E. Hunt
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 0814736351
"Explodes one of the most persistent and pernicious myths attached to the 1960s: that the anti-war movement was anti-GI and anti-veteran. How could that be, when, as Hunt shows, many of the most committed and eloquent opponents of the Vietnam war were themselves veterans of the conflict in Southeast Asia. The Vietnam Veterans Against the War were heroes then, and they deserve to be remembered as heroes today."
- Maurice Isserman, Hamilton College
Vietnam : reflexes and reflections : the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum by edited by Eve Sinaiko ; foreword by Sondra Varco ; essays by Anthony F. Janson and Eve Sinaiko ; collection photographed by Michael Tropea.
Call Number: 704.3550973 V666S6 , 1998
ISBN: 0810939452
A lavishly illustrated collection of works from the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum. Begun as a collective operating from an old warehouse on the South Side of Chicago in 1981, the museum now has the world's largest permanent collection of art depicting all aspects of the war in Vietnam, all of it created by veterans of the war. -- Kirkus Reviews
Vietnam and Armageddon; peace, war and the Christian conscience by Robert F. Drinan
Call Number: 261.873 D779v
ISBN: 0836204841
Father Drinan, dean of Boston College's law school ... regards the American engagement in Vietnam as the moral, if not the physical, Armageddon of Christian values in the modern world. -- from Kirkus Reviews
Vietnam at war by Mark Philip Bradley
Call Number: 959.704 B811v , 2009
ISBN: 0192803492
The Vietnam war : its history, literature and music by edited by Kenton J. Clymer
Call Number: 959.7043 V666C6 , 1998
ISBN: 0874042771
This collection of essays drawn from a 1996 symposium examines the traumatic impact of the Vietnam War on American institutions, the country of Vietnam, American and Vietnamese women, and American literature and music. -- Google Books
The Vietnam War : a graphic history by written by Dwight Zimmerman ; art by Wayne Vansant.
Call Number: 959.7043 Z72v , 2009
ISBN: 0809094959
The Vietnam War : Vietnamese and American perspectives by Mark Bradley ... [et al.] ; edited by Jayne S. Werner and Luu Doan Huynh.
Call Number: 959.7043 V666B8 , 1993
ISBN: 1563240572
The Vietnam War on Trial: the My Lai Massacre and the Court-Martial of Lieutenant Calley by Michal R. Belknap
Call Number: 343.7301 C157B4 , 2002
ISBN: 0700612122
"The military trial of William Calley for his role in the slaughter of five hundred or more Vietnamese civilians at My Lai shocked a nation already sharply divided over a controversial war. In this superb retelling of the My Lai story through the prism of the law, Michal Belknap provides new perspectives and keen insights into core issues about the war that still divide Americans today." -- from Google Books
Voices of the Vietnam POWs : witnesses to their fight by Craig Howes
Call Number: 973.9208697 H859v , 1993; Also available as e-book
ISBN: 0195086805
In the first book to explore the entire range of memoirs, biographies, and group histories published since America's Vietnam POWs returned home, Craig Howes explores the development of a collective history. He describes how these captives drew upon their national heritage to compose a unified, common story while still in prison, and how individual POWs have responded to this Official Story. ... The result is an engrossing study of what these captivity narratives can tell us about the POWs, their captors, and America's Vietnam legacy. -- Google Books
War torn : stories of war from the women reporters who covered Vietnam by Tad Bartimus ... [et al.] ; introduction by Gloria Emerson.
Call Number: 959.70430922 W253B2 , 2002
ISBN: 0375506284
Women journalists recall the terror and tragedy of Vietnam in this path-breaking collection of essays. -- Kirkus Reviews
The Wars we took to Vietnam: cultural conflict and storytelling by Milton J. Bates
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 0520204336
What Americans refer to as the Vietnam War embraces much more than the conflict with North Vietnam. Milton J. Bates considers the other conflicts that Americans brought to that war: the divisions stemming from differences in race, class, sex, generation, and frontier ideology. In exploring the rich vein of writing and film that emerged from the Vietnam War era, he strikingly illuminates how these stories reflect American social crises of the period. Some material examined here is familiar, including the work of Michael Herr, Tim O'Brien, Philip Caputo, Susan Sontag, Francis Ford Coppola, and Oliver Stone.

Reference Collection

The Columbia guide to America in the 1960s by David Farber and Beth Bailey with contributors.
Call Number: e-book, also in print: 973.923 C726 , 2001
ISBN: 0231113722
The 1960s continue to be the subject of passionate debate and political controversy, a touchstone in struggles over the meaning of the American past and the direction of the American future. Amid the polemics and the myths, making sense of the Sixties and its legacies presents a challenge. This book is for all those who want to take it on. Because there are so many facets to this unique and transformative era, this volume offers multiple approaches and perspectives. -- Google Books
Encyclopedia of American cultural & intellectual history by Mary Kupiec Cayton, Peter W. Williams, editors
Call Number: Ref 973.03 E56C3 , 2001
ISBN: 0684805618
Encyclopedia of American foreign policy : studies of the principal movements and ideas by Alexander DeConde, editor
Call Number: Ref 327.73 E56D
ISBN: 0684155036
Encyclopedia of American social history by Mary Kupiec Cayton, Elliott J. Gorn, Peter W. Williams, editors
Call Number: Ref. 301.0973 E56C3 1993
ISBN: 0684192462
Encyclopedia of American social movements by edited by Immanuel Ness ; foreword by Stephen Eric Bronner and Frances Fox Piven.
Call Number: Ref 303.484097303 E563N4 , 2004
ISBN: 0765680459
Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War : a political, social, and military history by Spencer C. Tucker, editor, David Coffey ... [et al.], associate editors.
Call Number: Ref. 959.7003 E56T8 , 2000
ISBN: 0132769328
The three-volume Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, edited by Spencer Tucker, has been hailed as the most comprehensive reference work on that watershed event. Now Tucker has produced an abridged one-volume edition, a miracle of concision that includes virtually all the entries found in the parent volume, in condensed form. -- Google Books
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture by Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast, eds.
Call Number: e-book found in Gale Virtual Reference Library database
ISBN: 1558624058
"Includes more than 2,700 signed essays ranging from 500 to 2,500 words, written by subject experts and edited to form a consistent, readable, and straightforward reference. Entries include subject-specific bibliographies and, where appropriate, photographs and textual cross-references to related essays."