Exploration of the Changing Values

Minnesota Author Tackles a World in Constant and Unpredictable Change in Debut Novel

(Minneapolis, MN) – The world is experiencing constant and unpredictable change and when this happens, it creates an environment that becomes increasingly less responsive to traditional solutions. Academic, business, and political communities refer to the situation as Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA).

"We've gone through a worldwide pandemic, and here at home our politics are polarized. Income inequality and a sense of helplessness are on the rise," says Keith Loveland, a Minneapolis attorney. "But this is nothing new. We’ve seen times like these before in America."

Loveland has always been intrigued by how societies deal with change. While an undergraduate, he began creating the back stories of two families in post-World War II America. Over the years he filled notebook after notebook with character studies, events, possible relationships, philosophies, and interior monologues. His notes resulted in his debut novel.

The End of the Empire is an eighty-year-long saga that tells the story of three generations of the MacAlpine and Bergen families, while at the same time paralleling the trajectory of the nation. The story begins after best friends Harold Bergen and Cameron MacAlpine return from World War II, and begin to pursue their dream of building families and community.

Their business thrives, their wives are best friends, and their children are bright and interesting. However, as the children grow up in turbulent times, influenced by the chaos of the Sixties, Vietnam, and the country’s growing polarization, things go awry.

"I am struck by people who lived through the Depression, served in World War II, and then just wanted to live their lives. They built businesses and homes, had families and reveled in the rewards of liberty and success.

"They had just won the war and many thought that was the end of it, not realizing that war and disorder return again and again. History tells us conflict is inevitable and winners this year may be losers the next. It also tells us that one generation's rise will be the next generation’s ride—and the next generation’s fall," say Loveland.

Loveland says it's going to take civility and mutual respect to turn things around. "There needs to be dialog and compromise between the Republicans and Democrats if in fact our Representatives and Senators are going to really serve all the people," he says.

Copies of The End of the Empire are available for purchase on Amazon in both eBook and print-on-demand formats.

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THE FIRST TUESDAY IN JUNE 1944

Cameron MacAlpine liked to tell the story about when he and Harold Bergen jumped out of their low-flying plane into the night skies of Normandy way back in June of 1944. They were Screaming Eagles, members of the feared 101st Airborne Division, and their company’s mission that night was to parachute behind enemy lines and secure route N13 and the village of Sainte-Mère-Église.

The Screaming Eagles had to be there, Cameron would say, because Allied Headquarters expected route N13 to become flooded with Nazi forces roaring through the old village toward the beaches of Normandy once it was obvious that the D-Day invasion was underway.

Cameron and Harold landed just outside Sainte-Mère-Église and fought their way slowly to the church at the center of the village. When telling the story, Cameron described the sound of gunfire, single rifle shots and bursts of machine gun rounds from the hostile forces in the village, but he never mentioned the names of his comrades who fell that day. He did say that the 101st Airborne Division overcame the enemy, occupied the town, and freed the residents, making the little village one of the first towns to be liberated in the Battle of Normandy.

Cameron always lowered his voice when he said the longest hours of his life began when his boots touched French soil and ended when the enemy had been killed or forced out of the village, even before some 25,000 American troops began landing at nearby Utah Beach.

Sometimes he would go to his old Army footlocker and pull out war souvenirs: a Luger, a Nazi Iron Cross, an enemy bayonet. He rarely showed anyone his Purple Heart, two Bronze Stars, and other medals which remained secure in their gold-colored boxes deep inside that footlocker.

He regularly received the Screaming Eagles newsletter and made travel plans as soon as he read that a reunion ceremony was planned on site in France. He was looking forward to being with the survivors of that day and that campaign. Paratroopers from the US 82nd and US 101st Airborne divisions had collaborated, joined forces, fought, and died to gain a foothold in France. Then his band of brothers had soldiered on to liberate Paris. Such a celebration, Cameron would say, although he never said exactly how he and Harold celebrated. Cameron Junior once asked his dad if that old footlocker had souvenirs from the liberation, something uniquely Parisian, feminine. Cameron laughed, rumpled his son’s hair, and changed the subject. If Cameron had such mementos, he never produced them.

The Screaming Eagles marched north into Bastogne in late 1944, during the coldest December in memory. Cameron and Harold were both wounded during The Battle of the Bulge.

Both were bandaged to stop the bleeding, given back their rifles, and continued fighting. Cameron especially liked telling the story of the senior United States Army officer who earned fame as the acting commander of the US 101st Airborne Division troops defending Bastogne, Belgium. The German commander asked General McAuliffe to surrender his outnumbered and besieged troops and McAuliffe is reported to have said "Nuts." Cameron's favorite souvenir was a large cylinder made by the townspeople of Bastogne by melting down the brass casings from the large shells which bombarded the Screaming Eagles. It was dedicated to the battling bastards of Bastogne with a drawing of McAuliffe in the center. He was giving his “Nuts” answer to a German officer.

That had been fifty years earlier.

THE RISE - WE WON THE WAR AND MADE THE WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY

The USS Wakefield pulled into New York Harbor in November 1945, filled with returning United States servicemen. They had won the war, VE Day had come and gone, VJ Day had also come and gone, and now they were free. Cameron MacAlpine and Harold Bergen rode the train home west to Saint Paul, Minnesota, Harold's hometown. Cameron grew up in Big Piney, Wyoming, an orphan who had enlisted as soon as war was declared. The two young men were paratroopers together in the 101st Airborne Division and best friends.

Now Harold had an idea. He was tired of destroying things, he wanted to create home, build houses and create home. He could imagine communities being developed and he wanted to be part of that. He wanted to be a builder.

"You know, Harold, that’s brilliant," Cameron told him on the long ride. "I have nothing waiting for me in Wyoming. I would love to build with you. Let’s do that together."

Cameron MacAlpine, though totally alone in the world, was a man of enterprise, a seeker, willing to roll the dice to get what he wanted. The idea of starting a business with a solid, hard-working guy like Harold was a dream to him. He could already see their success.

OUTTAKES

1968

1968 was an explosive mixture: boys and men going to fight an increasingly unpopular war in Southeast Asia, riots and cities on fire at home, women yearning for equality, a nation more deeply divided than at any time since the Civil War 100 years earlier.

1968 saw a harvest of the racism which had stained our nation since before its founding. Whites fled to the suburbs, and rioted against forced busing because though Brown versus Board of Education was the law of the land, the people of the land were afraid of integration.

1968 saw rebellion on campus after campus across the country. Anti-war protesters, Let Us Vote 18 protesters, pro-feminist protesters, eco awareness protesters. Posters and billboards everywhere proclaiming messages too numerous to count.

1968 saw urban areas organizing, rising up and marching. Equal housing was the law of the land, but the people were afraid of integration. Renters were striking for decent housing, and landlords letting buildings in the inner cities rot into decay.

1968 showed Americans a battle for the streets on the nightly news. News commentators described police command posts and their fight to regain control of vast parts of the cities.

1968 saw a completely to-be-expected law-and-order reaction to the upheaval of social order. Some of the people questioned authority and some of those in power sought to quell protest by any means.

1968 offered some hope for a peaceful future, and offered no hope for having peace right now for others. Some Americans were drafted, sent overseas to kill Vietnamese. Some Americans refused to be killers for America. How does one dislocate the functioning of a government without destroying that government? How does one protest violence through non-violent disobedience? Hope was a hard currency to get a hold of in 1968.

1968 saw dreams deferred, some dreams and dreamers killed, some people were so shattered by the stresses that dropping out seemed like the right approach. Some dropped out and never returned. Others resurfaced after the madness of the 60s and 70s had been replaced by the new madness of the 80s.

444 DAYS

The hostage crisis nightmare in Tehran began November 4, 1979 and did not end until noon on January 20, 1981, inauguration day. No one has ever proven that a quid pro quo between Iran and the US was the reason for their release one minute into the Reagan presidency.

The former Hollywood actor who had starred in Bedtime for Bonzo asked, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" The collective intelligence was 'No' and so Ronald Reagan was elected in November, 1980, and the world watched him take the oath of office. He looked presidential, as though someone had phoned central casting and asked for a tall, good-looking man.