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  3. Military, War, and Society in Modern American History

This series will publish works on war and society in modern America, including civil-military relations and the militarization of culture and society; the military's influence on policy, politics, and political economy; the military as an institution in shaping social change; and the military as a driver of US foreign relations.

  • General Editors: Beth Bailey, University of Kansas, Andrew Preston, University of Cambridge, Kara Dixon Vuic, Texas Christian University

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6 results in Military, War, and Society in Modern American History

The Age of Youth
  • American Society and the Two World Wars
  • Masako Hattori
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    March 2025
    Print publication:
    31 March 2025

The Pacific's New Navies
  • An Ocean, its Wars, and the Making of US Sea Power
  • Thomas M. Jamison
  • Published online:
    05 December 2024
    Print publication:
    12 December 2024
  • The initial creation of the United States' ocean-going battlefleet – otherwise known as the 'New Navy' – was a result of the naval wars and arms races around the Pacific during the late-nineteenth century. Using a transnational methodology, Thomas Jamison spotlights how US Civil War-era innovations catalyzed naval development in the Pacific World, creating a sense that the US Navy was falling behind regional competitors. As the industrializing 'newly-made navies' of Chile, Peru, Japan, and China raced against each other, Pacific dynamism motivated investments in the US 'New Navy as a matter of security and civilizational prestige. In this provocative exploration into the making of modern US navalism, Jamison provides an analysis of competitive naval build-ups in the Pacific, of the interactions between peoples, ideas, and practices within it, and ultimately the emergence of the US as a major power.

Uncertain Warriors
  • The United States Army between the Cold War and the War on Terror
  • David Fitzgerald
  • Published online:
    19 October 2023
    Print publication:
    09 November 2023
  • In an era where 'history' had supposedly ended, what was an Army for? This question confronted the US Army at the end of the Cold War. Although public support for the military remained high, fewer were sending their children to enlist and questions were raised about the uncertainty of future operations: How would Army leaders prepare soldiers for difficult peacekeeping operations that called for a more human-oriented approach in light of the promises of high-tech warfare? How best to navigate the broader debates about changing gender and sexual norms in American society? Pulled in different directions, the Army struggled to put forward a compelling vision of who and what the American solder should be. In Uncertain Warriors, David Fitzgerald reveals how, in response to this uncertainty, they eventually fell back on an older vision of martial masculinity, embracing a 'warrior ethos' that was meant to define the contemporary American soldier.

Dear John
  • Love and Loyalty in Wartime America
  • Susan L. Carruthers
  • Published online:
    04 January 2022
    Print publication:
    06 January 2022
  • Are 'Dear John' letters lethal weapons in the hands of men at war? Many US officers, servicemen, veterans, and civilians would say yes. Drawing on personal letters, oral histories, and psychiatric reports, as well as popular music and movies, Susan L. Carruthers shows how the armed forces and civilian society have attempted to weaponize romantic love in pursuit of martial ends, from World War II to today. Yet efforts to discipline feeling have frequently failed. And women have often borne the blame. This sweeping history of emotional life in wartime explores the interplay between letter-writing and storytelling, breakups and breakdowns, and between imploded intimacy and boosted camaraderie. Incorporating vivid personal experiences in lively and engaging prose – variously tragic, comic, and everything in between – this compelling study will change the way we think about wartime relationships.

The Regime Change Consensus
  • Iraq in American Politics, 1990-2003
  • Joseph Stieb
  • Published online:
    18 June 2021
    Print publication:
    08 July 2021
  • Why did the United States invade Iraq, setting off a chain of events that profoundly changed the Middle East and the US global position? The Regime Change Consensus offers a compelling look at how the United States pivoted from a policy of containment to regime change in Iraq after September 11, 2001. Starting with the Persian Gulf War, the book traces how a coalition of political actors argued with increasing success that the totalitarian nature of Saddam Hussein's regime and the untrustworthy behavior of the international coalition behind sanctions meant that containment was a doomed policy. By the end of the 1990s, a consensus belief emerged that only regime change and democratization could fully address the Iraqi threat. Through careful examination, Joseph Stieb expands our understanding of the origins of the Iraq War while also explaining why so many politicians and policymakers rejected containment after 9/11 and embraced regime change.

Pulp Vietnam
  • War and Gender in Cold War Men's Adventure Magazines
  • Gregory A. Daddis
  • Published online:
    22 October 2020
    Print publication:
    22 October 2020
  • In this compelling evaluation of Cold War popular culture, Pulp Vietnam explores how men's adventure magazines helped shape the attitudes of young, working-class Americans, the same men who fought and served in the long and bitter war in Vietnam. The 'macho pulps' - boasting titles like Man's Conquest, Battle Cry, and Adventure Life - portrayed men courageously defeating their enemies in battle, while women were reduced to sexual objects, either trivialized as erotic trophies or depicted as sexualized villains using their bodies to prey on unsuspecting, innocent men. The result was the crafting and dissemination of a particular version of martial masculinity that helped establish GIs' expectations and perceptions of war in Vietnam. By examining the role that popular culture can play in normalizing wartime sexual violence and challenging readers to consider how American society should move beyond pulp conceptions of 'normal' male behavior, Daddis convincingly argues that how we construct popular tales of masculinity matters in both peace and war.