The Cambridge History of War and Society in America

This volume offers a magisterial overview of the American experience of war from the colonial era to the War on Terror. It will interest students and scholars of war and society, military history, cultural history, and US history more generally.

This volume provides the most expansive interrogation to date of the field of war and society, offering a magisterial overview of the American experience of war from the colonial era to the War on Terror. It brings together leading scholars to examine how societies go to war, experience it, and invest it with meaning. Those ideas unfold across three thematic sections entitled 'War Times,' 'War Societies,' and 'War Meanings.' The essays scrutinize the symbiotic relationship between warfare and the armed forces on one side, and broader trends in political, social, cultural, and economic life on the other. They consider the radiating impact of war on individuals, communities, culture, and politics – and conversely, the projection of social patterns onto the military and wartime life. Across three sections, thirty chapters, and a roundtable discussion, the volume illuminates the questions, methodologies, and sources that exemplify war and society scholarship at its very best.