Sergeant Alvin York essays

Sergeant Alvin York essays In the book Sergeant York: An American Hero, by Author/Historian David D. Lee produces an biography of the World War 1 soldier who single-handedly killed 25 and captured 132 Germans during the battle of the Argonne. .0Lees study also deals with Yorks long postwar efforts to bring schools and roads to his remote Kentucky/Tennessee hometown, and examines the hero-making process that followed York for the rest of his life. David D. Lee announces two purposes for this book. As a Historian, Lee wishes to prepare a scholarly account of Alvin Yorks story in order to penetrate the myth surrounding him and establish the facts of his life (p. xi). As a student of the hero-making process itself, Lee also intends to use York situations to illustrate how heroes are chosen, how they in turn manipulate the process, the characteristics heroes exhibit, and role institutions play in publicizing them (p. xi). David D. Lee book biographical dimension succeed admirably. Although sympathetic, Lee avoids romanticizing York, quickly sketching the formative years of a rowdy though family-loving youth whose wild ways and taste for alcohol (p. 7) finally yielded to his sense of sin, his mothers pleas, and his own love for Miss Gracie William. Lee convincingly accounts for Yorks transformations from Christian pacifist to Godly crusader and judiciously describes how man of social caliber would heroically capture 132 Germans. Home form France, York passed his life, except for publicity tours, in Tennessee, where he sought to bring education, religion, and prosperity to his hometown area of Fentress Country. Only the specialist will need to know more about York. The meager record of a poorly educated man living among similarly handicapped people suggest the difficulty of learning much more about Yorks inner life than Lee reveals. His slim books more ambitiou...