Download or read book Scraping the Barrel The Military Use of Sub Standard Manpower written by Sanders Marble and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2012-07-02 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the dawn of organized conflict, sub-standard men--the inverse of the elites that get the lion's share of our attention-- have served their countries. This is their untold history.
Download or read book Scraping the Barrel written by Sanders Marble and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is a truism that history is written by the victors, and perhaps this is doubly so of military history, where the tendency is to relate the biggest battles, the most victorious and heroic deeds, the very best (or worst) of men. This book stands as a corrective to this belief. Scraping the Barrel covers ten cases of armies' using substandard manpower in wars from 1860 to the 1960s. Dennis Showalter and André Lambelet look at the changing standards in Germany and France leading up to World War I, while Peter Simkins chronicles what happened with the "Bantams," special units of short men used by Britain in the Great War. Often the use of substandard men was to answer the sheer need for manpower in brutal, lasting conflicts, as Paul A. Cimbala writes of the U.S. Veteran Reserve Corps in the Civil War, or to keep war-damaged men active; sometimes this ethos was used to include men who wanted to fight but who otherwise would have been excluded, as Steven W. Short writes of the U.S. "colored troops" in World War I. In the second World War it was to answer more dire exigencies, as David Glantz relates how the USSR, having suffered enormous losses, threw away many pre-war standards, reaching for women, ethnic/national minorities, and political prisoners alike to fill units. Likewise, Nazi Germany, facing many fronts and a finite manpower pool, was compelled to relax both physical and racial standards, and Walter Dunn and Valdis Lumans look at these changing policies as well as the battlefield performance of these men. In relating the stories of the substandard (for the military), Scraping the Barrel is also a humanist history of the military, of the more average men who have served their countries and how they were put to use. It throws light on how militaries' ideas of fitness reflect the underlying views of their societies. The idea of "disability" has been constructed based on a variety of physical, yes, but also social standards: as a value judgment on groups viewed as lesser--the aged, the lower classes, and those of different races and ethnic identities. From the American Civil War, through World Wars I and II, through the U.S. Project 100,000 in the Cold War, substandard men have been mobilized, have served, and have fought for their countries. These men are the inverse of the elites who get the lion's share of our attention. This is their untold history.
Download or read book Scraping the Barrel written by Sanders Marble and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at the boundary of military history and disability history. Rather than looking at veterans, it looks at case studies of how armies have defined standard and substandard, and have utilized `substandard' personnel. Standard has both physical and cultural components; both change depending on the period and the nation, and change during wars as manpower becomes scarce. The book takes case studies ranging from the American Civil War to the Vietnam War from the US, Britain, France, Germany, and the USSR.
Download or read book Political and Military Sociology written by Neovi M. Karakatsanis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of Political and Military Sociology focuses on the perceptions and identities of those serving in the military, using survey or interview data to explore those perceptions. A range of military forces are examined, including those of the United States, Israel, Norway, and Denmark.The first article, using survey data from Denmark, compares the views of Danish soldiers to civilians. The second article looks at the effects of military education upon the attitudes and values of soldiers. The third article explores Israeli soldiers' attitudes regarding formal military education. The fourth article addresses the impact of Norwegian soldiers' self-identity on military performance.In a different vein, the survey results of the fifth article show that support for soldiers on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan does not necessarily translate into support for veterans. Military lawyers in the Israel Defense Forces are the subject of the sixth article. This volume concludes with an article that argues that military service should be offered as a legal policy alternative to incarceration.
Download or read book Ethnic Germans and National Socialism in Yugoslavia in World War II written by Mirna Zakić and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an in-depth study of the ethnic German minority in the Serbian Banat (Southeast Europe) and its experiences under German occupation in World War II. Mirna Zakić argues that the Banat Germans exercised great agency within the constraints imposed on them by Nazi ideology, with its expectations that ethnic Germans would collaborate with the invading Nazis. The book examines the incentives that the Nazis offered to collaboration and social dynamics within the Banat German community - between their Nazified leadership and the rank and file - as well as the various and ever-more damning forms collaboration took. The Banat Germans provided administrative and economic aid to the Nazi war effort, and took part in Nazi military operations in Yugoslav lands, the Holocaust and Aryanization. They ruled the Banat on the Nazis' behalf between 1941 and 1944, yet their wartime choices led ultimately to their disenfranchisement and persecution following the Nazis' defeat.
Download or read book German occupied Europe in the Second World War written by Raffael Scheck and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-04 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by recent works on Nazi empire, this book provides a framework to guide occupation research with a broad comparative angle focusing on human interactions. Overcoming national compartmentalization, it examines Nazi occupations with attention to relations between occupiers and local populations and differences among occupation regimes. This is a timely book which engages in historical and current conversations on European nationalisms and the rise of right-wing populisms.
Download or read book Thunder in the East written by Evan Mawdsley and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-19 with total page 533 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thunder in the East, originally published in 2005, is widely regarded as the best short history of the entire Nazi-Soviet military conflict. It tells the story from the pre-war expectations of Hitler and Stalin, through the pivotal battles deep in Russia in 1942-43, and on to the huge Soviet offensives across Eastern Europe in 1944-45. This final 'march of liberation' destroyed the Third Reich and set Europe's history for the next 45 years. The book provides penetrating answers to vital questions: Why did the war in the East develop as it did? Why did Hitler's Wehrmacht lose? Why did the Red Army win, and why did the people of Soviet Russia pay such a high price for victory? The first edition took advantage of the flood of new sources that followed the end of the Soviet era. This second edition takes account of what has been written over the last decade; the Nazi-Soviet war, in all its aspects, has continued to be the subject of extensive and innovative research and heated controversy.
Download or read book D Day Girls written by Sarah Rose and published by Crown. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The dramatic, untold history of the heroic women recruited by Britain’s elite spy agency to help pave the way for Allied victory in World War II “Gripping. Spies, romance, Gestapo thugs, blown-up trains, courage, and treachery (lots of treachery)—and all of it true.”—Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake In 1942, the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was on the front lines. To “set Europe ablaze,” in the words of Winston Churchill, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose spies were trained in everything from demolition to sharpshooting, was forced to do something unprecedented: recruit women. Thirty-nine answered the call, leaving their lives and families to become saboteurs in France. In D-Day Girls, Sarah Rose draws on recently declassified files, diaries, and oral histories to tell the thrilling story of three of these remarkable women. There’s Andrée Borrel, a scrappy and streetwise Parisian who blew up power lines with the Gestapo hot on her heels; Odette Sansom, an unhappily married suburban mother who saw the SOE as her ticket out of domestic life and into a meaningful adventure; and Lise de Baissac, a fiercely independent member of French colonial high society and the SOE’s unflappable “queen.” Together, they destroyed train lines, ambushed Nazis, plotted prison breaks, and gathered crucial intelligence—laying the groundwork for the D-Day invasion that proved to be the turning point in the war. Rigorously researched and written with razor-sharp wit, D-Day Girls is an inspiring story for our own moment of resistance: a reminder of what courage—and the energy of politically animated women—can accomplish when the stakes seem incalculably high. Praise for D-Day Girls “Rigorously researched . . . [a] thriller in the form of a non-fiction book.”—Refinery29 “Equal parts espionage-romance thriller and historical narrative, D-Day Girls traces the lives and secret activities of the 39 women who answered the call to infiltrate France. . . . While chronicling the James Bond-worthy missions and love affairs of these women, Rose vividly captures the broken landscape of war.”—The Washington Post “Gripping history . . . thoroughly researched and written as smoothly as a good thriller, this is a mesmerizing story of creativity, perseverance, and astonishing heroism.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Download or read book Military Service and American Democracy written by William A. Taylor and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “When I became secretary of defense,” Ashton B. Carter said when announcing that the Pentagon would open all combat jobs to women, “I made a commitment to building America's force of the future. In the twenty-first century, that requires drawing strength from the broadest possible pool of talent.” That “pool of talent”—and how our nation's civilian and military leaders have tried to fill it—is what Military Service and American Democracy is all about. William Taylor chronicles and analyzes the long and ever-changing history of that often contentious and controversial effort, from the initiation of America's first peacetime draft just before our entry into World War II up to present-day conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. A history that runs from the selective service era of 1940–1973 through the era of the All-Volunteer Force of 1973 to the present, his book details the many personnel policies that have shaped, controlled, and defined American military service over the last eight decades. Exploring the individual and group identities excluded from official personnel policy over time—African Americans, women, and gays among others—Taylor shows how military service has been an arena of contested citizenship, one in which American values have been tested, questioned, and ultimately redefined. Yet, we see how this process has resulted in greater inclusiveness and expanded opportunities in military service while encouraging and shaping similar changes in broader society. In the distinction between compulsory and voluntary military service, Taylor also examines the dichotomy between national security and individual liberty—two competing ideals that have existed in constant tension throughout the history of American democracy.
Download or read book The Cambridge History of the Second World War Volume 1 Fighting the War written by John Ferris and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-23 with total page 1342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The military events of the Second World War have been the subject of historical debate from 1945 to the present. It mattered greatly who won, and fighting was the essential determinant of victory or defeat. In Volume 1 of The Cambridge History of the Second World War a team of twenty-five leading historians offer a comprehensive and authoritative new account of the war's military and strategic history. Part I examines the military cultures and strategic objectives of the eight major powers involved. Part II surveys the course of the war in its key theatres across the world, and assesses why one side or the other prevailed there. Part III considers, in a comparative way, key aspects of military activity, including planning, intelligence, and organisation of troops and matérial, as well as guerrilla fighting and treatment of prisoners of war.
Download or read book The Advent of the All Volunteer Force written by William A. Taylor and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-03-10 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the extensive influence of the All-Volunteer Force (AVF) on the past, present, and future of America, demonstrating how the AVF encompasses the most significant issues of military history and defense policy. Throughout the vast majority of its wars during the twentieth century, the United States relied on a mixture of volunteers who chose to serve and conscripts provided through the Selective Service System, known colloquially as the draft. When the United States emerged as a world superpower in the aftermath of World War II, U.S. policymakers also depended on the draft during peacetime. Drawing on primary source documents, this book guides readers through the transition from the draft to the AVF and analyzes its history, results, challenges, and implications. Each chapter provides an overview of the issues of the time, recounts the ensuing debates and developments around them, and examines how they manifested themselves relative to the advent of the AVF and American society during times of peace and war. Combining narrative with documents, The Advent of the All-Volunteer Force is a valuable resource for students, scholars, policymakers, and general readers interested in modern American history, military history, and the dynamic linkages between policy, politics, and American society.
Download or read book Tis Not Our War written by Paul Taylor and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2024-06-18 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James McPherson’s classic book For Cause & Comrades explained “why men fought in the Civil War”—and spurred countless other historians to ask and attempt to answer the same question. But few have explored why men did not fight. That’s the question Paul Taylor answers in this groundbreaking Civil War history that examines the reasons why at least 60 percent of service-eligible men in the North chose not to serve and why, to some extent, their communities allowed them to do so. Did these other men not feel the same patriotic impulses as their fellow citizens who rushed to the enlistment office? Did they not believe in the sanctity of the Union? Was freeing men held in chains under chattel slavery not a righteous moral crusade? And why did some soldiers come to regret their enlistment and try to leave the military? ’Tis Not Our War answers these questions by focusing on the thoughts, opinions, and beliefs of average civilians and soldiers. Taylor digs deep into primary sources—newspapers, diaries, letters, archival manuscripts, military reports, and published memoirs—to paint a vivid and richly complex portrait of men who questioned military service in the Civil War and to show that the North was never as unified in support of the war as portrayed in much of America’s collective memory. This book adds to our understanding of the Civil War and the men who fought—and did not fight—in it.
Download or read book Survival written by Jonathan Lipow and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2016-07-29 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How should national security concerns alter our perception of what constitutes good economic policy? Survival: The Economic Underpinnings of American National Security introduces principles of national security thinking relevant to public policy, then illustrates application of these principles in a number of policy areas including fiscal policy, healthcare, education, immigration, welfare and poverty abatement, energy, and the environment.
Download or read book Proud Warriors written by Alexander M. Bielakowski and published by University of North Texas Press. This book was released on 2021-11-15 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During World War II, tens of thousands of African Americans served in segregated combat units in U.S. armed forces. The majority of these units were found in the U.S. Army, and African Americans served in every one of the combat arms. They found opportunities for leadership unparalleled in the rest of American society at the time. Several reached the field grade officer ranks, and one officer reached the rank of brigadier general. Beyond the Army, the Marine Corps refused to enlist African Americans until ordered to do so by the president in June 1942, and two African American combat units were formed and did see service during the war. While the U.S. Navy initially resisted extending the role of African American sailors beyond kitchens, eventually the crew of two ships was composed exclusively of African Americans. The Coast Guard became the first service to integrate—initially with two shipboard experiments and then with the integration of most of their fleet. Finally, the famous Tuskegee airmen are covered in the chapter on air warfare. Proud Warriors makes the case that the wartime experiences of combat units such as the Tank Battalions and the Tuskegee Airmen ultimately convinced President Truman to desegregate the military, without which the progress of the Civil Rights Movement might also have been delayed.
Download or read book America s Foreign Legion written by Dennis A. Connole and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-01-11 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Immigrant American soldiers played an important, often underrated role in World War I. Those who were non-citizens had no obligation to participate in the war, though many volunteered. Due to language barriers that prevented them from receiving proper training, they were often given the most dangerous and dirty jobs. The impetus for this book was the story of Matthew Guerra (the author's great-uncle). He immigrated to America from Italy around age 12. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1918 and shipped to France, where he joined the 58th Infantry Regiment of the 4th "Ivy" Division and participated in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives. Wounded in the Bois de Fays, the 22-year-old Guerra died in a field hospital.
Download or read book Physical Control Transformation and Damage in the First World War written by Simon Harold Walker and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-11-12 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From enlistment in 1914 to the end of service in 1918, British men's bodies were constructed, conditioned, and controlled in the pursuit of allied victory. Physical Control, Transformation and Damage in the First World War considers the physical and psychological impact of conflict on individuals and asks the question of who, in the heart of war, really had control of the soldier's body. As men learned to fight they became fitter, healthier, and physically more agile, yet much of this was quickly undone once they entered the fray and became wounded, died, or harmed their own bodies to escape. Employing a wealth of sources, including personal testimonies, official records, and oral accounts, Simon Harold Walker sheds much-needed light on soldiers' own experiences of World War I as they were forced into martial moulds and then abandoned in the aftermath of combat. In this book, Walker expertly synthesizes military, sociological, and medical history to provide a unique top-down history of individual soldiers' experiences during the Great War, giving a voice to the thousands of missing, mutilated, and muted men who fought for their country. The result is a fascinating exploration of body cultures, power, and the British army.
Download or read book Providing for the Casualties of War written by Bernard D. Rostker and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2013-04-29 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: War has always been a dangerous business, bringing injury, wounds, and death, and--until recently--often disease. What has changed over time, most dramatically in the last 150 or so years, is the care these casualties receive and who provides it. This book looks at the history of how humanity has cared for its war casualties and veterans, from ancient times through the aftermath of World War II.
