The Author:
Mary Edwards Wertsch
Photo by Nicholas Wertsch
Mary
Edwards Wertsch, a seasoned investigative reporter
and writer, was raised in a career Army infantry
family. By the time she was 18 she had lived in
three countries and 20 different houses. Her B.A. in
philosophy was earned at the College of William and
Mary. Currently she lives in the Midwest in dwelling
no. 43 with her husband and two sons, and continues
to write and lecture about the military brat
cultural identity she has been credited with
identifying since this ground-breaking book was
first published in 1991.
MILITARY
BRATS: Legacies of Childhood inside the Fortress
By Mary Edwards
Wertsch
with
Introduction by Pat Conroy
The book that
launched a movement…. This is the book that, in 1991, started it
all, and it remains the pre-eminent, authoritative work on the
cultural identity shared by military brats. Highly readable,
engaging, and revelatory, Military Bratscontinues to astound the grown children of career military families
with its insight and inspiration. It’s the book we didn’t know we
always needed.
From the original
flyleaf of the Harmony Books hardcover:
A startling,
groundbreaking exploration, Military Brats
is the first book
to analyze what it means to grow up in the military. Based on five
years of research, including in-depth interviews with eighty
military brats from all the armed services as well as physicians,
teachers, psychologists, social workers, and others, this book
probes the consequences—both positive and negative—of being raised
in a family characterized by rigid discipline, nomadic rootlessness,
dedication to military mission, and the threat of war and personal
loss.
With its
clear-eyed, sometimes shocking depictions of alcoholism and domestic
violence, and its empathy for military parents caught up in an
extremely demanding way of life, Military Brats provides
catharsis, insight, and a path toward healing. Mary Wertsch not
only defines America’s most invisible minority for the very first
time, she also passionately exhorts the children of warriors to come
to terms with their native Fortress legacies so that they might take
full advantage of the positive endowment that is also their
birthright.
Civilians will find
this book eye-opening. Military parents will find it at once
challenging and sympathetic. And military brats will know in their
hearts that this is the book they’ve been waiting for.
From the
Introduction:
“I thought I was
singular in all this, one of a kind. With this book, Mary Wertsch
astonished me and introduced me to a secret family I did not know I
had….This book is both a love letter and a troubled meditation on
the way children are raised in military families.”
--Pat Conroy, Marine brat, author of The Great Santini, Lords of
Discipline, The Prince of Tides, Beach Music
Military
Brats
gives the experience of a military childhood a weight many of us have
never fully admitted, allowing our pain, finally, to be saluted
alongside our pride.
--The Atlantic Monthly
Fascinating and
edifying….
--The Sunday Oregonian
…a
comprehensive, well-written and moving study of the effects of
military life on children, who ‘serve’ with no recognition or
glory….
--United Press International
Wertsch’s
deeply felt book has much to say about the fragility of the family
and about the dark side of human nature.
--Publisher’s Weekly
Mary
Edwards Wertsch offers…clarity for those of us born into military
families with her ground-breaking study…. Wertsch writes
eloquently, weaving together personal experience, extensive
research, and interviews…. For those who were raised in the
Fortress who are still searching for the missing pieces to their
lives, Military Brats will provide valuable clues.
--Sober Times, The Recovery Magazine
Wertsch’s
Military Brat sis a long-needed corrective that goes a long
way toward explaining to civilian society the demands it places not
only on its soldiers but on their offspring….
--Chronicles
Her
attention to the dark side hasn’t resulted in a gloomy book. I
found it wise and helpful.
--Navy Times
A good choice for many public libraries and for any library serving a military population.
--Library Journal
Despite its many
handicaps, a military upbringing also offers unique bonuses, and
Wertsch stresses the particular strengths that military brats can,
and often do, develop.
--Kirkus Reviews
Brats
will read this book and recognize themselves…. Civilians,
particularly spouses of brats, may read it and begin to
understand….Regardless, when Mary Edwards Wertsch says she’s ‘proud
to be a military brat and despite the high price exacetd by the
Fortress,…would have it no other way,” she speaks an interesting
truth that many brats will recognize.
--Raleigh News And Observer
This is a real page turner for those military brats trying to come to
terms with who they are and why. There are so many answers to your
nagging questions (and questions you didn't even know you had). Like
others who have reviewed this book I laughed (at both myself and my
family) and cried. Must-read as far as I'm concerned. --Kleinzle in Lincoln, NE
I have never seen the feelings
and experiences I had growing up put down on paper with such
clarity. Mary Wertsch captures the experience of growing up as a
brat precisely. I have bought copies of this book to send to my
parents and sisters; I know they'll feel the same way I do. This
book will touch ANY person who grew up in the military environment.
--Srfpunk1
I am a proud Navy brat and only
recently found this astonishing book. I had no idea books like this
existed and it was such a major source of enlightenment to me that I
can't even begin to describe it. I'm recommending it to everyone.
Although chunks of this book did not apply to me (my father was
never abusive, my mother is anything but passive around him) the
vast majority of her book hit me like a ton of bricks. A very good
ton of bricks. The inconsistencies in my behavior that I couldn't
quite explain, the constant sense of isolation and competition, my
patterns with friends, my inability to adequately explain to any of
my civilian friends exactly what made my childhood so different from
their own... this book explained SO many things and put me on the
path to answers for other things. This is part of a story that needs
to be told but that few know is out there. Regardless of service,
age, or experience I give this book my highest recommendation to
everyone, military brat or not!! --Maydragons
When reading this book, as I saw
something that applied to my life, I dog-eared the page. By the end
of the book, I had about two-thirds of the pages turned down. The
book really helped me understand myself.
--Stephen H.
It's been over 10 years since I
originally bought this book. Mary Edwards Wertsch clearly documents
that life in the military is not a job, but a career experience for
an entire family. This book illustrates the challenges many of us
faced growing up and the similarities we have had in adulthood. It
also helps brats, like myself, understand some of the public service
values we inherited from years of family public service.
I have bought five copies to
share with other friends who are brats. The stories in this book
served as a unifying experience for all of us.
--Randall C.
It helped me to deal with some
painful issues that I didn’t even realize were there. I am a younger
brat, but I related to many of the stories in the book….My father
was not abusive in any way, however, I cried in some parts of the
book just because I have never heard or read anything that I could
relate to so much.
--Sherri M.
I certainly have experienced
many of the same ups and downs outlined in Military Brats, and like
others I found it very therapeutic reading. I generally loathe
self-help or pop pysch books, but this one's different - at least
for me. Being a writer myself, I know what kind of effort it takes
to put together a book like this. Congratulations to Wertsch.
--Josh T.
This book makes sense out of
oddity. I cried as I read the first few chapters, not knowing why.
My life and feelings make more sense. So many 'issues' I didn't
realize had a foundation. I've passed it along to my husband, hoping
he can better understand the 'brat life'. I wouldn't have missed the
life, but almost missed the book. A MUST read for military families
and for civilians trying to understand their military husbands,
wives or children.
--Alexa C.
I found this book Military Brats
by the Grace of my God. It answered soooooo many questions. I found
out that I was not so crazy after all. But it also told me that I
had many years ahead to work through some very painful issues. I
praise Mary Edwards Wertsch and have endless gratitude to this woman
for her courage to put into words that are even today setting me
free of my fears and demons.
--Patrica A.
Ladner Davis
Mary Edward Wertsch captures the
experiences of military brat life in its truest sense. She
illustrates through interviews, and her own family experiences, how
brats do not live as civilian kids do. The book discusses the
stresses and strains of a military parent constantly leaving home
for months at a time; of living inside the military fortress with
all its rules, frustrations, and expectations on the warrior family;
of the effects of alcoholism within the military; and of the
constant moves, broken friendships, and fractured relationships. As
a backdrop to the interviews and stories, the author also weaves
throughout the book scenes from the movie "The Great Santini", which
to many a civilian is just a fictional movie about a military
family, but to many a military brat, all too real. This is a must
read for any military brat!
--Anne H.
A very good study about the
"town" that we military brats grew up in. I have no contacts with
past friends because of the typical rapid movement of the "cold
warrior". This book has helped me realize that we are all out there
and share a very common set of values gained while growing up "on
the base". I now ask three questions when I come across other
members of the tribe: 1) How may schools did you go to? 2) What did
you do when the flag came down in the evening? 3) How did you answer
the phone? If you don't think you are different, ask the questions
of a civilian. I wish I’d had this resource 30 years ago.
--James E.
Dodgen Jr.
This wonderful book helped me
see my life in a new perspective. Now I am able to understand why
the experience of growing up an "Army Brat" was so unique an
environment that even my parents did not understand it. And it is so
good to find out we are not alone.
--Joan Lane
Jacobs
News story from
Armed Forces Press Service Author Explains
Culture for Fellow Military Brats
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 25, 2006
Military
"brats" are powerfully shaped by the culture they grow up in, and
that culture makes a lasting impression, author Mary Edwards Wertsch
said.
"It has everything to do with everything that's ever happened in my
life," the St. Louis resident said.
Wertsch, who wrote "Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the
Fortress," lived in 20 houses and attended 12 schools during her
father's career as an Army infantryman.
"I wouldn't trade that life for anything," she said. "I don't think
I've ever met a brat who would."
This culture that often feels rootless to those living in it has
made Wertsch and her contemporaries who they are today, she said.
A feeling of being a "nowhere kid" followed Wertsch into her adult
life. It was only after seeing "The Great Santini," a character
study of a gung-ho Marine pilot and his relationship with his
family, in 1980 that she realized others had grown up feeling the
same way she had. This revelation prompted Wertsch to write her
book.
"I was just totally thunderstruck by that movie. I thought, 'We
weren't alone after all'," she said. "The fact is, we do come from
someplace, but how are we going to know that? No one ever tells us
this."
It's up to brats to recognize they are part of a real culture, and
with this knowledge comes an identity, she said. "I think it really
puts in the missing piece of the puzzle to understand where we came
from -- our own rooted culture," Wertsch said.
She acknowledged there are challenges to growing up in the military
culture, but noted the good outweighs the bad.
"In terms of positives, oh my gosh!" Wertsch said. "We can be
plunked down into any social setting and make our way very well.
People of any class, any background, any line of work, we can join
right in and talk with them and be quite comfortable."
She remembers thinking it would be neat to be like her "civilian"
cousins and go to school with people she had always known. But that
lifestyle just wasn't natural for her, she said.
New challenges and new places were, and brats aren't afraid of
either, she said. Putting down roots, on the other hand can be
difficult.
"We've lived in St. Louis for 11 years, and in this particular house
for 10, which is three times longer than I have ever lived anywhere
in my life," she said. Wertsch and her husband, a civilian
professor, raised two boys there.
Wertsch said she sought to be authoritative, but not authoritarian
in rearing her sons. While there were distinct rules, she said she
tried to help guide them to the right choices and decisions, not
just impose these upon them. At the same time, they learned very
similar values to those she learned growing up, she said.
Those values are at the core of her being, she said.
"I'm talking about a great deal beyond waving the flag," she said.
"I'm talking about rock-bottom things like integrity and honesty and
an attitude of anti-racism, not just non-racism. Things like loyalty
and doing what you say you're going to do -- follow-through."
Wertsch said her biggest reward as a brat is the understanding that
her life had meaning because she was serving a meaningful mission.
"The beautiful thing about the military is that it's in service to a
mission that is larger than oneself," Wertsch said. "Those of us
raised in the military never lose that once we are out in civilian
life. We always want to live in service."
In fulfilling that desire, Wertsch has founded Brightwell
Publishing, which specializes in books that explore and strengthen
military brat cultural identity.
