A People’s History of the U.S. Military: Ordinary Soldiers Reflect on Their Experience of War, from the American Revolution to Afghanistan

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. (Sept.)