Elizabeth Samet on being caught between war and peace

West Point English Professor Elizabeth Samet's new book, "No Man's Land," explores what the end of the post 9/11-wars means for soldiers, and for the country.

An excerpt:

My friend Max insists that he would "sell his organs" before his Fat Boy. Max did "some serious riding" when he returned from Iraq, and he has been to several rallies and crossed the country twice since leaving the army in 2006. When I asked him to explain the special relationship between combat veterans and bikes, he proposed that riding constitutes a strange form of "detox" or "rehab"-a way to "come to terms with the version of you that's returned . . . Not necessarily changed for better or worse. But different."

In addition to the bonds cultivated or preserved by riding in the midst of a group of like-minded bikers, there is an elemental freedom to the motorcycle: riding creates a space in which a veteran can afford, as Max puts it, to think about everything "you either didn't have time to think about over there . . . or you obsessed about . . . only to return home and find out it didn't matter." The road is the place where Max can be understood without having to explain himself. Even after many of his illusions have been shattered by real-world experience, he retains a romantic faith in the road: "The road has all the answers . . . The road is a promise fulfilled."

Samet joins The Daily Circuit to talk about the United States entering a postwar era.