Armed with Abundance: Consumerism and Soldiering in the Vietnam War
"A valuable work for any student of this war. Highly recommended. All levels/libraries."--Choice"Fluid and engrossing."--A Nota Bene selection ofThe Chronicle of Higher Education"Belongs on any reading list on the American experience in Southeast Asia."--Journal of American History"Leading a much-needed re-evaluation of Americans' Vietnam War experiences and all the layers of complexity that are buried under public memory and myth."--Journal of Social History"Break[s] new ground in scholarship on American experiences of the war in Vietnam. . . . Boldly and skillfully venture[s] into new historical terrain, and complicates the war story in the process."--Diplomatic History"In this refreshing, original book, Meredith Lair attempts to disrupt and transform traditional narratives of the [Vietnam] war by focusing on the overwhelming majority of American personnel in Vietnam who served in noncombat positions. . . . [Her] bold and courageous book encourages us to ask difficult questions about what this means for traditional and often-outdated ideas about the military, soldiers, and citizens during wartime."--Register of the Kentucky Historical Society"Lair has laid the foundation stone for a new historiographical approach, a research field that focuses on the other aspect of warfare, the leisure culture during wartime and between battles. This research can serve as a model for the examination of similar phenomena in other wars."--H-War