A People's History of the U.S. Military

June 11, 2012
In just under 400 pages Central Connecticut State University history professor Bellesiles (1877: America’s Years of Living Violently) provides a captivating history, based largely on first-person accounts, of America’s military. Drawing on letters, diaries, and memoirs of American soldiers over more than two centuries, he connects the soldiers' accounts with a contextual narrative that ensures the book is more than a disconnected anthology of testimonies of service. Bellesiles’s most important contribution is focusing the different chapters on various themes of military service unique to each war. For example, in the first chapter he focuses on the poverty that motivated soldiers to join the American Revolution with Congress’s promise of pay, food, and a piece of land; in the chapter on the War of 1812 he emphasizes the nation’s lack of preparedness and the ineffectiveness of the undisciplined, occasionally mutinous militia; and in the final chapter on Iraq and Afghanistan he investigates contemporary issues such as gays in the military and women in combat, concluding that the military has often evolved ahead of the rest of society, offering opportunities to minorities and the poor, and functioning as a meritocracy. Bellesiles’s thematic structure gives the book a fresh perspective and makes it an excellent educational tool. Agent: Dan Green, Pom Inc.

October 1, 2012

The author of the discredited Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture (2000), Bellesiles (history, Central Connecticut State Univ.) here uses the letters, diaries, and memoirs of mostly common soldiers from 1775 to 2011 to convey the history of America's wars. He also contends that behind America's routine praise for its soldiers was actually little appreciation of their service, poor postwar care of the wounded, and a failure to fulfill promised war service pensions (with the major exception of the post-World War II GI Bill). He argues that after the early U.S. wars especially, fears were expressed that returning veterans would overthrow the government and establish a dictatorship. But these citizen soldiers continued to fight America's many wars while hoping that their sense of equality and shared sacrifice would be recognized when they returned to civilian life. VERDICT A People's History is strongly sympathetic toward veterans and very critical of their treatment historically. Veterans, those unhappy with America's frequent wars, and those interested in U.S. military history will be attracted to this book.--MJ

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2012
Plenty of books record soldiers' writings and interviews, but this one stands out modestly by sticking mostly to enlisted men. Throughout history, writes Bellesiles (History/Central Connecticut State Univ.; 1877: America's Year of Living Violently, 2010), working-class young men have enlisted in search of adventure or a paying job. Those in the United States have been no different except in one respect. From 1775 until the 20th century, Americans tended to consider themselves citizen-soldiers giving up their freedom to fight for liberty. As the author demonstrates, this patriotism was severely tested by the miseries of service; readers will squirm at accounts of ineptitude, racism, intolerance and atrocities. During the American Revolution and the War of 1812, soldiers were simply not fed or paid. In the Civil War and World War I, they were ordered forward in suicidal charges, and they knew it. WWII was not quite the "good war" of popular memory, but it enjoyed national support. This absence in Korea and Vietnam devastated morale. The elimination of the draft in 1973 eliminated the citizen-soldier, and civilians now view this all-volunteer force with worshipful admiration. Although now professionals, soldiers remain supersensitive to incompetent leadership and impossible missions. Ironically, civilians glorified fighting men but ignored veterans until they formed their own pressure group. Lobbying by the Grand Army of the Republic produced pensions for Union Civil War veterans, the largest federal budget expense for decades after the 1890s. The GI Bill of Rights remains the sole government entitlement program that no Republican would dare denounce. Surrounded by Bellesiles' acerbic commentary, this is a useful, unsettling bottom-up history of America's wars that emphasizes the soldiers' mistreatment, suffering and injustice.

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