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Norman Mailer

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The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as History Paperback – Bargain Price, January 1, 1995

by Norman Mailer (Author)

4.0 205 ratings

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The novelists interpretes and dramatizes the October 1967 anti-war demonstration in Washington and the issues and politics involved.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Plume
Publication date

January 1, 1995
Dimensions

5.42 x 0.68 x 8.08 inches
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004P5OQNI
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Plume (January 1, 1995)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.42 x 0.68 x 8.08 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.0 205 ratings

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Norman Mailer

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Norman Kingsley Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007) was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film-maker, actor and political activist. His novel The Naked and the Dead was published in 1948. His best-known work was widely considered to be The Executioner's Song, which was published in 1979, and for which he won one of his two Pulitzer Prizes. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, his book Armies of the Night was awarded the National Book Award.

Along with Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism, which uses the style and devices of literary fiction in fact-based journalism.

Mailer was also known for his essays, the most renowned of which was "The White Negro." He was a cultural commentator and critic, expressing his views through his novels, journalism, essays and frequent media appearances.

In 1955, Mailer and four others founded The Village Voice, an arts- and politics-oriented weekly newspaper distributed in Greenwich Village.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Carl Van Vechten [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Alex Hicks

A Masterpiece of the New Journalism

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2022

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Along with "In Cold Blood," "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," and" The Right Stuff" and other early writings of Tom Wolf, one of the supreme masterpieces of the New Journalism. It's an exhilerating mix of serious political reportage, a hero tale and (since the hero is someone's bit of an ass) a mock epic -- exhilerating at least for those who can stay aloft with its stately and sometimes high flown style. It's also an incisive early analysis of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, as biting as any critique of our pre-Nixon involvement in Vietnam, though almost Polyannish in comparison with such recent revelations of actual US rules of engagement in Vietnam as Nick Turse's "Kill Anything that Moves."

With "Armies," Mailer's frequent difficulties funding a a coherent overall shape for his works seems resolved by the creative charge he gets writing about himself as hero; and his first indisputable masterpiece is born.

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Alfred Johnson

The Novel as History, Indeed

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2007

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The original review of Norman Mailer's Armies of the Night was posted just prior to the 2007 anti- Iraq War demonstration noted below. I have recently reread his book (May 2008) and have revised and expanded that review but have let that 2007 preface stand.

On March 17, 2007 various anti-Iraq War forces will converge on the Pentagon to oppose that war and to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the original protest of that symbol of American imperialism during the Vietnam War (and `levitation' of the building according to some sources then, such as the late Abbie Hoffman). Whether such a celebration is called for under the circumstances of the Iraq anti-war movement's continuing failure to stop this war is a separate question to be left to another day. Today it is nevertheless fitting that Norman Mailer's Armies of the Night, about those several days forty years ago, should be reviewed with this upcoming event in mind.

In this novel as history (or history as novel depending what part you are reading at a given time) Norman Mailer tries, successfully for the most part, to use this literary trope as a means for closely investigating the action that he is witnessing (and taking part in). As I have mentioned elsewhere in other reviews of Mailer's books he will be eventually known in the literary pantheon for his journalism and musings on his life and his times. But not merely as a journalist in the conventional sense, those are basically a dime a dozen and eminently forgettable, but as an exemplar of the then `new' journalism. That concept got its greatest expansion in the later work of Doctor Hunter Thompson (`gonzo' journalism) but Mailer, and to a lesser extent, Tom Wolfe gave it legitimacy.

The premise behind this mode of analysis is that the reporter not prohibited from being an actor in the action he or she is covering contrary to the norms beaten into media students that one is suppose to be `objective'- detached from the action one is reporting. Now is not the time to expound of the virtues and vices of that `gonzo' method but to see whether it works in Mailer's exposition. I believe that it does.

To set the stage the Vietnam War, by 1967, had gone through various stages of escalation by the administration of Lyndon Johnson as it attempted to find a way to deal with the quagmire that it had created for itself in South Vietnam. The opposition to the war had also gone through several stages of political activity responding to those Administration acts of escalation. By the fall of 1967, working off a successful mass demonstration in the spring, the diffuse leadership of the anti-war movement (Old Left, New Left, New York intelligentsia and so forth) and especially one Dave Dellinger a central leader of the time, had decided that it was necessary to up the ante. Thus, the Pentagon, a very visible and direct symbol of American imperial power, became the focus for a proposed mass rally and various undefined acts of civil disobedience in October. As a long time opponent of the war and one almost always ready, despite some personally-driven contrary instincts expressed throughout the work here, to give something to the cause Norman Mailer steps into the picture. His personal saga informs the bulk of the book.

And what is that personal saga. Mailer originally signed up to bear witness to symbolic mass draft card turn in at the Justice Department and to speak. During the course of those few days in October, however, he got dragged into, not unwillingly for the most part, an act of civil disobedience that got him arrested, confined in various holding pens and finally released after a number of twists and turns worthy of a novel. Along the way Mailer described his fellow prisoners, their responses to their confinement, his responses to his legal situation and further musings on the nature (or rather de-nature) of American society at the time, the worthiness of the anti-war opposition movement and his own periodic leadership delusions of grandeur as he tries to place the event in context of an on going war against...well, plastic. Thus, he successfully fulfilled the basic premise of `gonzo' journalism- he was able to become mired in the center of the story but was also able through that process to bring out some home truths that one expects from a good journalist...or novelist.

The irony of fate of this book is that the part that Mailer spends the most time on, essentially the bulk of the book as an updated version of his perennial scheme of advertising for himself, is some forty years out the least interesting from a historic standpoint. I would say that the last twenty pages or so are what are important today for those of us who are trying to find our way out of the current quagmire in Iraq. Mailer, I believe, consciously and correctly tried to demonstrate that mere symbolic actions (including, in the final analysis, his own) would not bring the monster down. His own prescription however proved totally inadequate (and as echoed today continues to do so).

Mailer is rather unkind to the Old Left (Communists, Trotskyists of various hues, professional pacifists-the `plan' types) and their dependence on the centrality of the traditional working class, as well as the New Left kids (SDS, Draft Resistance, etc.- the `free play' types) and their dependence of `students and professionals' as the new working class. His position then seemed to be somewhere in the vicinity of an Americanized and sanitized version of Che Guevara's theories on guerilla warfare. Except that what Mailer is really postulating is the theory behind Guevara's work that it was necessary for a new cleansed `man' (and given his other known sentiments of the time concerning women I believe he was being exclusive here) to emerge to fight the monster. Norman, wherever you are, I believe that sentiment, if less articulately expressed than by you, already had its day with Bakunin and later with the Social Revolutionaries in late 19th century Russia. But Kudos for Armies. Adieu, Left Conservative.

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Carey Rowland

ya gotta love it. While we may not have all checked ...

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2015

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As a boomer, ya gotta love it. While we may not have all checked in, we were all there in spirit. Thanks, as Bob Hope would say, for the memories, Norman!

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J. Wagner

now seem boring and repetitious

Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2014

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Classic Mailer. But i find that, after lo so many years, his style doesn't hold up that well. It is taking me a long time to read this. His endless digressions, which I probably thought were far out at the time, now seem boring and repetitious.

6 people found this helpful

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Apollyon

Very fast shipping

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2022

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Fast shipping, and as described.

Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2019

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Engaging. Very informative. I lived through that era and I learned new things. I’m glad I chose to read it. I’m on to other Mailer books.

3 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

False advertising

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2019

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Not the edition pictured or purchased. I could’ve bought this new version via prime for ten dollars cheaper

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2020

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This is journalism from 50yrs ago. The fiction is fleeting and not amusing enough to carry the reader.

The most enjoyable part of this book is the first 50pgs which are arguably very funny and self effacing. Thereafter it’s just tedious.

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Top reviews from other countries

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estrella

el precio y lo rápido que ha llegado el libro

Reviewed in Spain on February 8, 2019

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no hay nada que no me haya gustado. Lo he usado para una clase de cultura norteamericana

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David Partridge

Great service..

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2019

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Great service..great price for v-good quality book..

Lulu77

temoignage

Reviewed in France on January 18, 2013

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livre en bon etat pour une occasion
lecture captivante d'une epoque tourmentee
humour , claivoyance et analyses detaillees d'un evenement crucial.
Un tres bon Mailer

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Na Go

Great book, fast shipping

Reviewed in Spain on April 12, 2016

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The book was in good shape, just some notes on it, that are gonna help me know a little about the previous owner of the book, what I think is really cool. I order it with an edition of Why Are We in Vietnam, that came out to be a 1st edition, and that made me so happy. Also they shipped the books really fast.

Mr. D.F

Another Mailer Rant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 30, 2019

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Should have known better. It's another self fixated Mailer rant. Gone after 25 or so page to Princes Alice charity shop.

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