Are Americans Becoming More Peaceful?

Paul Joseph is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at Tufts University. He is the author of several books on Vietnam, nuclear weapons policy, and the security debate after the end of the Cold War.

“It’s time that someone broke into the general gloom created by a war-loving administration and reminded us that we are a peace-loving people. Paul Joseph’s book does just that, not with fantasy but with facts, showing how the public antipathy to war, suppressed too long by propaganda and deception, is coming to the surface, and offers hope.” —Howard Zinn “Paul Joseph has made me rethink militarization. Here in Are Americans Becoming More Peaceful? Joseph demonstrates persuasively exactly how much effort U.S. officials have invested in making Americans see the world as fearsome and wars as low cost. That suggests that they think that most Americans are not naturally inclined toward militarism. What a fresh insight this is! It should set off a lot of lively and valuable public conversation.” —Cynthia Enloe, author of Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives “In this antidote to despair, Joseph shows how even the most sophisticated efforts of U.S. political and military leaders to maintain public support for war are flawed and doomed to failure in the face of an increasingly skeptical public that is unwilling to accept the costs.” —William A. Gamson, Professor of Sociology, Boston College

• Preface and Acknowledgments, 1. From Mobilized to Conditional War, 2. Managing Fear, 3. Managing Information, 4. Managing the Media, 5. Managing Photographs, 6. Managing Gender, 7. Managing Militarism, 8. Managing Casualties, 9. From Managing War to Making Peace, Notes, Index