The Institute: Virginia Military Institute

I highly recommend this book. The author and photographer have done a masterful job of capturing the essence of VMI. This should be required reading for all prospective cadets.

This is a very impressive book. The photography is exceptional, and the reproduction of the images on these pages is of high quality. You can practically count the individual threads in the cadets' coatees. I was also pleased to find that the captions accompanying the photos tend to explain what's happening in them, or at least provide some sort of context to the images. An explanation of the Ratline and the phenomenon of Rat year is an essential component of any book about VMI, and Geoffrey Norman's text does a fine job here, too. This book was produced with the cooperation of VMI itself, and that access shows in the detail and thoroughness with which the VMI experience is explained. It may well be true that nobody who hasn't been through the Ratline can ever truly understand it -- but within those limitations, I feel like I have a much better grasp of what is involved, and what it all means, than I did before. Certainly this book would make a fine gift for a VMI alum, or something he (or she!) would like to get for themselves. VMI parents and friends would get a lot out of it too, as would students and parents thinking about attending the Institute. I've been doing what I can to find and read as many books about "the I" as possible, and so far this is one of the, or perhaps THE, very best. I don't see that evaluation changing any time soon

This really is a very nice book, with fabulous photgraphy which makes the book worth every penny of its price. The book was written just before the admission of women to its school, and therefore focuses on it being an all male school.One of the things I loved about this book is how contemporary it is. Normally when I have picked up books on military colleges, the author spends pages and pages going on about the schools hisotry and its early formation and those who were involved in it. A miniscule amount of time is spent looking at the lives of cadets and how the school is structured (such was the case with Drawing out the Man, a historical book by a VMI grad). Fortunetly this is not the case with the Institute. The book looks at the lives of Rats (first year cadets) as it is right now and their transitions through the school. This book has also taught me how far VMI has come. VMI is not afraid of positive making positive changes. Unlike another somewhat infamous military college. VMI will shed some of it more archaic traditions in order to be welcoming to others (There were several shots of multi-ethnic cadets). The school has seemed to shed some of its old emphasis on worhipping the Confederate Old South. And has now turned into a school dedicated to educating young people and building them up with character and fortitude. Which in my eyes is what makes this school truly great and unique. I am too old to attend VMI now, but if I could I would quickly enter.Rah! Rah! VMI