The Armies of the Night

The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel/The Novel as History is a nonfiction novel by American author Norman Mailer, first published in 1968. Considered the premier example of the nonfiction novel, it splits into historical and fictional accounts of the October 1967 March on the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War. It was one of the first examples of the genre, and is split into two primary segments, with the first directly depicting Mailer’s activities during the march, and the second presenting a nonfiction account of the march and the tactics used by the protesters. Exploring themes of political radicalism, the community of activists, and the questions of what America was fighting for in Vietnam, The Armies of the Night is one of Mailer’s most acclaimed works and is considered one of the most significant works dealing with the Vietnam War and the resistance on the home front. It won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction and the National Book Award, and is still widely read and analyzed today.

The Armies of the Night is split into two segments. The first, “History as a Novel: The Steps of the Pentagon," is written in third person with Mailer as the protagonist, and is presented as a first-hand account of Mailer’s activities during the March on Washington. Following an excerpt from Time Magazine, the novel begins with Mailer at home receiving a call from his college friend Mitch Goodman, asking him to come to the march to join a demonstration at the Department of Justice in honor of students who are rejecting their draft cards. Mailer reluctantly agrees, and in Washington starts to meet up with fellow anti-war activists in the literary world, including Robert Lowell and Dwight Macdonald. From there, he’s named the MC for an event at the Ambassador Theater. It goes badly, as Mailer drinks too much and embarrasses himself. Time writes that he mumbled and spewed obscenities on stage, which he commandeered from the previous MC. The next day, he avoids the spotlight and watches the other speeches at the event. Almost a thousand draft cards are turned in.

The saturday of the march comes around, and Mailer is one of the first to arrive at the Pentagon. He immediately sets out to get himself arrested, and is quickly taken into custody without resisting. The rest of the segment focuses on him in custody. First he’s held in an on-site jail with a neo-Nazi, and is then moved to a holding cell in the courthouse. He wonders if he should give his fellow cellmates some of the money he brought to bail himself out, and winds up giving much of it away, keeping only just enough for himself. He and his fellow arrestees discuss rumors of what the plan is for them, and how the situation at the Pentagon is going. They’re then moved to a prison farm in Occoquan, Virginia, where they’re put to work until their release. Mailer settles in, sleeping a lot, and this leads to a cut segment, titled, “Why Are We in Vietnam,” detailing Mailer’s scholarly analysis of the reasons for the US military involvement abroad and the way it’s playing out on the home front. During this segment, Mailer is interviewed for a documentary by British journalist Dick Fountain. Eventually, the inmates are offered a deal to plead no contest in exchange for a suspended sentence. Mailer refuses, wanting to plead guilty, and gets a thirty day sentence. He’s freed after appeals, and the segment ends with him giving a rambling speech invoking Jesus to the press.



The second part of the novel, titled, “The Novel as History: The Battle of the Pentagon,” begins with an image of the novelist passing his baton to the historian with a happy smile. This segment of the book is much shorter, and deals with the March on the Pentagon from a much wider perspective as opposed to simply from Mailer’s perspective. It opens with a discussion of the organization of both sides of the March - the pro-war and anti-war camps. Groups organize by planning out which routes and locations are to be used, and the protesters and the government negotiate the protest down to every little detail. Neither side is willing to given an inch. On the day of the March, Mailer discusses the tactics and tools used by each side, from the civil disobedience of the protesters to the violent actions taken by the military. This segment contains first-hand accounts from protesters who were attacked. Finally, the final hour of the protest is recorded in depth. The loudspeakers warn the protesters to disperse before midnight, and buses struggle to clear them all out. A select few hardcore protesters refuse to leave. Mailer again ends the segment with religious imagery, and ends the book by discussing his personal feelings about the war and protests.

Norman Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, filmmaker, and political activist. He was a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, winning for Fiction for The Executioner’s Song and for Non-Fiction for Armies of the Night. Considered one of the innovators of creative nonfiction and New Journalism, he is best known today for his thirteen novels. However, he leaves a significant body of work across the artistic spectrum.