This is a remarkable book that “combines history and current events, including my own experiences in the Army and the Senate,” Tom Cotton writes. For the latter, I’ve drawn on my own recollections, research, notes, and writings for speeches, op-eds, and so forth. For recent events, I’ve also consulted news stories in traditional media sources.”
Cotton is being modest. He’s not a braggart or a make-believe expert. His reading and research have been breathtaking, as a soldier, congressman, and, since 2015, a senator and adviser to Mitch McConnell, the leader of Senate Republicans. And, by the way, Cotton is from rural Arkansas where his family clan has lived and farmed for six generations.
His academic career was impressive and unusual. He graduated from Harvard and then Harvard Law School, leading to his enlistment in the U.S. Army in 2005. His military career was brief but dazzling. He passed the Army Ranger Course and the Airborne School. Yes, he earned an Army Parachute Badge. He was discharged in 2009 after combat assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
