On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery

I first became aware of Arlington National Cemetery after President Kennedy was assassinated. Like so much of the country during those dark days, I watched the funeral on television. Growing up during the sixties, Arlington was ever-present, as many of the young soldiers who died in Viet Nam were buried there. Yet it wasn't until a few years ago that I became aware that the site had originally been the plantation belonging to Robert E. Lee, the general who led the Confederate forces during the Civil War. I've visited Washington, DC several times. On my most recent trip, I was able to visit Arlington. Several surprises were waiting for me. Lee's house is still standing. For some reason, I thought that it had been destroyed during the Civil War. There are areas with grave monuments that I would have expected to see in a civilian cemetery rather than the more austere uniform markers found in the rest of Arlington. Most puzzling was the placement of some of the memorials. Especially the mass grave in what looked to me to formerly be a garden. The answers to all of these mysteries are found in Robert Poole's excellent book on the history of Arlington. I hesitate to use the word "history" which conjures up the idea of a dry tome filled with names and dates and battles. Mr. Poole's book contains all of those but he tells his story in a more reader friendly manner. Just because this is a history written for a popular audience doesn't mean that it has been dumbed down at all. The author covers each major era in the history of Arlington, seemingly without omitting a single significant detail. He tells how the cemetery came into being, how the traditions we see today are the result of years of development some of them still evolving, and how and why burials were placed in the cemetery. The story of Arlington National cemetery is as much the story of the military and government officials of their times as it is about our country. I'm sure that many readers will be surprised, as I was, to learn that Arlington was not always the revered place that it is today. After reading Mr. Poole's first-rate account, it's easy to understand how a need for burial space and one man's near obsession with appropriating the property of a traitor became a national symbol and coveted place to spend eternity. I'm looking forward to visiting Arlington again, this time with a better understanding of it and with this book tucked under my arm.

Absolutely the very best book I have ever read about Arlington. It is remarkable what this author has done!

ON HALLOWED GROUND: THE STORY OF ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY is high on my list of the finest books that I have ever read. Robert M. Poole, a consummate storyteller of longstanding, hits full stride with this literary masterpiece. This extraordinary story chronicles the creation and evolution of Arlington National Cemetery, with that narrative being intriguingly told against a backdrop of some of the most pivotal events in U.S. history--the events that necessitated the existence of a hallowed ground to serve as the final resting place for those who have sacrificed so much for our country. Skillfully and harmoniously interweaving these elements, Poole crafts an entertaining and enlightening work of tremendous scope and depth. It is as insightful and illuminating as it is thought provoking, underscoring much of the American saga's greatness. This is a book for all Americans. The holidays are a time for giving. I have already given a copy of ON HALLOWED GROUND to a friend of mine who is a retired U.S. Army Major General. In the space of two days, he finished the book--and he loved it! Robert M. Poole, master wordsmith that he is, has presented us a most excellent holiday gift.

Robert Poole comes closer to the heart and soul of Arlington than any other book that has been written. Much of the other information that has been published before is guidebook/history information. Unlike other superficial accounts that show pictures of the grandeur of the cemetery and the ceremony, there is much background, including how close our ceremonies are to those of the Grecian warrior's and how no other country goes to the extent the United States does to honor their common military men, including returning them to their home country. I have been with the military all of my life. Arlington is a family and friend's cemetery, a very personal place and `On Hallowed Ground" comes the closest to touching the feelings that those of us that regard Arlington have as our personal hallowed remembrance as any book. With that said I wish that there was more of the tales of the common military man here. Out of 267 pages more than 80 are devoted to the very detailed history of the Lees, the Civil War and the acquiring of the Lee land for this cemetery. I wish there was less of Lee, which has been previously covered by other books and more of the soul of the men and women of Arlington. The Old Guard is covered, but not to a great extent. There is little of the expansion of the cemetery in and after the Vietnam era, which he attributes not to the war but to the popularity after Kennedy's burial, which he does a magnificent job of describing. But I remember an officer whose office suddenly overlooked the growing number of headstones as being insulted that, that was now the view from his office; and I of course could not reply what I was thinking, that maybe that is what he needed to see. The days and effect of 9/11 are touched upon, but that was a tremendous effect with the coming of section 60 and the comfort and companionship of families together who have lost those buried together from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts instead of scattered around the grounds. The constant noise of airplanes taking off from nearby National/Reagan Airport is again briefly mentioned, but not the eerie silence that followed in the many days that Reagan was shut down after 9/11 and having stood at my father's funeral in sight of the wounded Pentagon and with just the noise of the construction repair from across the highway we all knew that eerie silence brought a world forever changed. This is a wonderful book, I wish it could have gone further into some of the changes that have occurred with honoring the military both in life and death, they are touched upon; and having been spit upon during Vietnam and called baby killers by Americans at home, to enter Arlington was a place we knew we would be honored...those are the stories that make Arlington part of the heart of America. Poole points out that much could not be included, but even Pete Conrad is not listed among the astronauts buried there. There is one map of the Arlington today but a few of how the cemetery has e

This history of the Arlington National Cemetery kept me thoroughly completely engaged throughout. An chronological accounting of our nation's cemetery through individual stories of the people who were buried there, it made an great companion to the more thematically structured and excellent Civil War history by Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, which I had previously completed. Poole's account details the complex political and bureaucratic processes around the selection of unknown soldiers, and the developing culture of memorial to war dead as well as the role of the cemetery in attempting to heal internal national divisions (Civil War, Vietnam "war"). His detailing of how Robert E Lee's wife's family plantation was slowly appropriated alone is well worth the reading time. I also greatly appreciated how Poole's highlighting the design--land use, vistas, monuments, tombstones, rituals etc--deftly demonstrates that attention to detail reinforces beliefs and values. Examples include the categorization--by war, race and sex--of people buried, to a soldier's description of the practice needed folding a flag apparent simplicity of folding the flag at a state funeral. There many things and further questions (areas of inquiry) that came to my mind as I read this book. Overall areas that left me intrigued are: the discipline of architecture's relationship to war memorials (I know that Maya Lin, while at Yale, designed her winning design for an architecture class on war memorials); 2) any possible ramifications of the flattening of army hierarchy through the elimination of burial practice for enlisted men and officers; (as of 2009, all people, officer or enlisted, killed in action are granted full-honors ceremonies); and 4) the future of practice of the Unknowns and its relationship to accountability... Fascinating book. Highly recommended for the content as well as the writing and as a way to approach history writing--not through the history of a single person or an organization, but around the changing, physical manifestation of intangible beliefs and values . I am going to seek out Robert Poole's other book, Explorers House: National Geographic and the World It Made, with great confidence that it will be as illuminating as this. Note: I won this book in the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.