Amazon.com Review
Call it Robert Fulghum by way of John Wayne... In 1953, Zell Miller was as low as he could get. He'd dropped out of college after being made to feel inferior because of his "hillbilly" background and wound up in jail one weekend after getting drunk on moonshine and driving his car into a ditch. In an effort to turn his life around, he signed up for marine boot camp. The experience changed his life, and he remains convinced that the values he learned during his 90 days at Parris Island are "the only basis upon which diversity can coexist with commonality and all people can pursue individual goals for themselves while contributing to the general well-being and advancement of society as a whole." These simple values, from neatness and punctuality to discipline and loyalty, are for Miller the basis of a strong civil society. Although some readers may find some of his notions--such as his frustration at seeing kids wear caps backwards--a bit extreme, Miller reminds us that any organization that pumped out men like Bernard Shaw, Don Imus, Ted Williams, and Art Buchwald must have something going for it.