Paying with Their Bodies

February 23, 2015
Kinder, an American Studies professor at Oklahoma State University, offers a cultural history of America’s disabled veterans from the Civil War to today’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Concentrating on 20th-century wars above all—with particular attention paid to WWI—Kinder zeroes on what he calls the “Problem of the Disabled Veteran”: that is, how the nation deals with its war wounded and what political lessons are to be drawn from the social effects of the vast numbers of disabled veterans. Kinder identifies two main political “fantasies” involved in the problem: the generally pro-war view that the U.S. can remain a global military power “without incurring the social, economic, and physical consequences associated with veterans’ disabilities,” and the anti-war belief “that Americans will permanently reject war because of the risks to soldiers’ bodies and minds.” Both fantasies are false, Kinder says, and he mixes in sketches of well-known disabled veterans—including Harold Russell (WWII), Ron Kovic (the Vietnam War), and Tammy Duckworth (the Iraq War)—with bigger-picture issues involving the social and political impacts of veterans’ disabilities. It’s a well-written, though academically tinged, tome that illuminates the long-lasting human legacy of America’s wars.

March 15, 2015

Throughout this book, Kinder (history, American studies, Oklahoma State Univ.) capitalizes the "Problem of the Disabled Veteran" to highlight the enduring nature of the question of how Americans should think about veterans who return home permanently damaged in body or mind. His ambitious history begins with the Civil War's aftermath and ends with our current wars, but some two-thirds of the text is devoted to World War I, when more than 900,000 American service personnel applied for disability benefits and a Veterans' Bureau was established to address casualty on that scale. While attitudes toward disabled veterans shift over time, Kinder sees two persistent, competing "fantasies": that warfare can be conducted safely and that Americans will abandon war owing to its bodily risks. He also sees a persistent failure to learn from mistakes, resulting, despite progress in battlefield medicine and postwar rehabilitation, in a consistent pattern of neglect. VERDICT Kinder's own antiwar opinions are evident throughout his work, which some readers may feel detracts from its value. All readers will agree, however, that the author's research is valuable, although some might prefer Beth Linker's more focused War's Waste.--Robert Nardini, Niagara Falls, NY

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.