West Point: The First 200 Years

Coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in March of 2002, this PBS companion book is a celebration and examination of West Point's remarkable role in our nation's history. It reveals the Academy's tremendous influence on our country, highlighting the most significant eras and themes of a school that in many ways is a microcosm of the nation that it serves. Through engaging narrative and striking contemporary and archival photography, it offers a multifaceted portrait of the Academy in all of its tradition and pageantry, its academic and military excellence, and its fluctuation between clinging to the past and reinventing itself.

Beginning with the legendary events that took place at the site of West Point prior to the establishment of the Academy, the text explores the school's humble beginnings, its later contributions as a leading engineering institution, its enormous presence in the Civil War, and the social challenges faced by West Point throughout its 200-year history, including race and gender issues. Woven into the fabric of the account are stories of the larger-than-life characters that people the Academy's past, including Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, and Douglas MacArthur as well as such "colorful" former cadets as Edgar Allen Poe and James Whistler.

Stunning photographs of the campus as it looks today, fascinating black-and-white images from the Academy's archives, and photos of artifacts and memorabilia from the West Point Museum's collections are featured throughout the pages of this lavishly illustrated volume. The perfect souvenir of the Academy's 200th anniversary, this book will be a treasure not just forWest Point alumni and their families, but for anyone with a spark of interest in American history.