War in Modern US History

War in Modern US History: A Transatlantic Perspective brings together scholars based primarily in Europe to reconsider the place of war in the modern history of the United States. Although war has been central to the making of US power and global influence, the study of war and the military has often remained fragmented across subfields: military history, diplomatic history, cultural history, social history, American studies, sociology, and political science. This volume argues that a transatlantic and interdisciplinary perspective offers a particularly productive vantage point from which to rethink these divisions.The book approaches war not as a narrowly defined set of military actions but as a “total social act” whose effects extend across political institutions, social hierarchies, cultural representations, technologies, memory, gender, welfare, and everyday life. Its chapters range from the Civil War to the post-9/11 era and examine subjects including military occupation in Tennessee during the Civil War, nuclear communication during the Cold War, World War II intelligence, Cold War role-playing games, military spouses, disabled veterans, US military reform, and the afterlives of American bases in France. Together, they show how the boundaries between war and peace, military and civilian life, domestic and foreign policy, and national and transnational history have been constructed, blurred, and contested over time.By foregrounding the work of scholars trained in differing European academic contexts, the collection also highlights the value of looking at US history from the outside. This perspective challenges assumptions of American exceptionalism, brings US military history into dialogue with European and global historiographies of war, and encourages a broader understanding of the field. With an afterword by Beth Bailey, the volume speaks to scholars interested in the fields of US history, military history, war and society, and American studies and in the global and transnational dimensions of US power.ContributorsBeth BaileyOlivier BurtinMalcolm CraigAnne-Lise Dall’AgnolaFrançois Doppler-SperanzaLucie GenayKatharina GerundAndrew HouckJohannes NagelHélène SolotSimona Tobia