Chuck Hagel: Moving Forward

Berens offers a fine journalistic account of Hagel's life, including his upbringing, and how Nebraska's political and environmental variables helped mold his character. Whether as high school president, or a young soldier turning down a desk job for what proved to be heroic service in Viet Nam, or a purposeful young man resigning from a plum appointment at the Veterans Administration under President Reagan, or an influential Senator "risking the administration's wrath" over his position on Iraq, her portrait of Hagel reveals his particular brand of individualism, clearly nurtured by his Plains roots.