Book Review

Bullies and Cowards: The West Point Hazing Scandal: 1898-1901

Author: Philip W. Leon Reviewer: Hank Nuwer hnuwer@iupui.edu (ISSN: 0883-6884) Greenwood Press. Westport, Conn. 1999. 208 pages LC 99-32002. ISBN 0-313-31222-2. GM1222 $58.00

I first researched the turn-of-the-century hazing scandal at West Point for my 1990 book Broken Pledges, slogging through deep piles of government documents to gain access to an amazing variety of demeaning hazing practices conducted by cadets.

Now, author Philip W. Leon has written a valuable, quite book that puts that information into a context that reads like a work of literature. Disturbing, it is nonetheless compelling. His title comes from a quotation from Mark Twain that was printed in 1901 at the height of the scandal. "The men who indulge in hazing are bullies and cowards. . . I would make it the duty of a cadet to report to the authorities any case of hzing which came to his notice; make such reports a part of the vaunted West Point "code of honor" and the beating of young boys by upper class men will be stopped.

Interestingly, in some parts one concludes from Leon's book that some of the hazers weren't so much bullies as misguided and immature, as well. Citing a fictional hazing rendered by the novelist Pat Conroy in "Lords of Discipline," Leon writes this: "Overzealous cadets, eager to prove their devotion to the higher purposes of the system, engage in acts of brutality and, in a perverse irony, debase the very system they seek to ennoble."

Particularly compelling is the way Leon humanizes the hazers and hazed alike-not only Oscar Booz (a victim who leaves the Academy and then dies of illness) but the American military icon, Douglas MacArthur. Not quite as deeply probed is Leon's discussion of rites of passage, but it still is worth reading nonetheless, discussing male strength rituals and female submissive rituals.

You do not have to be interested in hazing or the military to appreciate this book. This is a fine addition to the shelves of American Literature, and Philip W. Leon. a professor of English at The Citadel, ought to get another medal pinned to his uniform for this excellent work.