“Getting Shot At: Essays on War, Conflict & Culture Clash” with Bill Ehrhart

Vietnam veteran, poet, educator, and essayist Bill (W.D.) Ehrhart joins our podcast to discuss his new collection, “Getting Shot At: Essays on War, Conflict and Culture Clash.” Drawing on more than fifty years of writing and activism, Ehrhart reflects on how Vietnam shattered his belief in American good intentions and how that disillusionment informs his sharp, plain-spoken essays on U.S. militarism, culture wars, and historical amnesia. The conversation ranges from controversial poems and “snowflake” politics on both the left and the right to the corrosive impact of technology on education and to his relationships with truth-tellers like Daniel Ellsberg and H. Bruce Franklin. Thoughtful, funny, and unsparing, this episode is essential listening for anyone trying to understand how past wars shape our present conflicts—and what it means to keep telling the truth in a country that keeps trying to forget.

About Bill Ehrhart

Bill Ehrhart was born in Pennsylvania in 1948 and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps straight out of high school, serving 13 months in Vietnam during some of the war’s heaviest fighting. After returning home, he became one of the most widely recognized Vietnam veteran poets, publishing numerous collections of poetry, several volumes of memoir—including “Vietnam-Perkasie” and “Passing Time”—and multiple books of essays on war, politics, and American culture. Ehrhart earned a Ph.D. in American Studies and spent decades teaching, most notably at the Haverford School, where his work in the classroom paralleled his public writing as a critic of U.S. militarism and historical myth-making. His poems and essays are known for their plain-spoken language, narrative clarity, and unflinching moral engagement, qualities that have led scholars and fellow writers to describe him as “the dean of Vietnam War poetry” and a persistent voice of conscience.

Order the book: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/getting-shot-at/

Bill’s Website: https://wdehrhart.com/

Follow Bill online: LA Progressive: https://www.laprogressive.com/author/w-d-ehrhart  The New Hampshire Gazette: https://www.nhgazette.com/author/w-d-ehrhart/ 

Greg’s Blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

Pat’s Substack: https://patcummings.substack.com/ 

#W.D.Ehrhart#BillEhrhart#GettingShotAt#EssaysonWarConflictandCultureClash#Vietnam#veteranpoet#VietnamWarliterature#Antiwarveteran#Progressivepolitics#U.S.militarism#DanielEllsbergPentagonPapers#BruceFranklinVietnammyth#Snowflakeculture#Free#Technologyandeducation#Warmemoirandessays#LAProgressivewriter#NewHampshireGazette#PatCummings#PatrickCummings#GregGodels#ZZBlog#ComingFromLeftField#Podcast#zzblog#mltoday