WSU will host Doug Bradley and Craig Werner, authors of “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3, in Stark Auditorium, room 103.

Bradley, a Vietnam veteran, teaches a course on the war with Werner, professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

In “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” Bradley and Werner place popular music at the heart of the American experience in Vietnam. They explore how and why U.S. troops turned to music as a way of connecting to each other and the world back home and of coping with the complexities of the war they had been sent to fight.

Bradley and Werner will play excerpts of music from the Vietnam era, ranging from Jimi Hendrix and Creedence Clearwater Revival to Aretha Franklin and James Brown. They accompany the music with stories from Vietnam veterans they interviewed. The veterans’ stories are about how music helped them form community, stay connected to the world back home and make sense out of the war.

They also demonstrate that music was important for every group of Vietnam veterans—black and white, Latino and Native American, men and women, officers and “grunts”—whose personal reflections drive the book’s narrative.

Book sales and refreshments will begin at 6 p.m. Book signing and sales also will take place after the presentation.

For more information, contact Michelle Eggerichs at MDEggerichs@winona.edu