Pulitzer Book Club Inclusion Guide
"Guard of Honor" by James Gould Cozzens
INCLUSION MILESTONES
1949
• Truman's "fair deal" speech
• Congress raises min wage, extends old-age benefits, creates Federal Housing Act to provide suitable homes for all Americans
AUTHOR INSPIRATIONS
Cozzens was an Air Force major and spin doctor (publicist) for WW2 Chief of Army Air Force. Author Cozzens was reclusive and avoided publicity.
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Featured Reader
– Share your key take-away about inclusion in this book in a sentence or two.
– Write a paragraph or two (up to 250 words) to describe your thoughts on exclusion/inclusion in the book, why you related or did not connect with the book, and why you think reading, inclusion and dialog about inclusion matter.
– Identify the name and website address of a cause you support with an inclusive mission.
Bigotry toward Tuskegee airman; abuse cover-up on Florida Air base
Black U.S. Air Force officers – Tuskegee airmen -- enter the Officer’s Club and are arrested.
WW2 story about systemic racism set during three days on a Florida Army Air Force training base.
642 pages summarize three days. It reads quickly. Not found as a spoken book.
Now. People were writing about systemic racism 70+ years ago.
A case study of systemic racism in the military as well as a window into how women were treated in the late 1940s.
Reach into a bag of a cream puffs and offer one to someone after you’ve insulted them in some way.
“Power corrupts all right. If you have enough of it, it may, in the end, absolutely corrupt you; but you only need the least little bit, a modicum of power, the power of a staff officer, to do a good job corrupting other people.”
Someplace where you have every right to be but are not welcomed.
Why are we still dealing with systematic racism 70+ years after this book won a Pulitzer?
How has the military changed during the past 70+ years in terms of treatment of women and people of color? What additional changes are due?
Compare military, police and Catholic Church cover-ups.
It’s possible to arrange group tours of some military air bases. Visit the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site in Tuskegee, AL. Tuskegee Airmen training bases included Griel, Kennedy, Moton, and Shorter Fields near Tuskegee as well as the Tuskegee Army Airfield.
1960 “Guard of Honor” movie.
“Just Representations” (1978) includes Cozzens’ 1940 autobiographical novel “Ask Me Tomorrow,” short stories, essays, some 1923 diary entries, and excerpts for six of his novels.