Making War at Fort Hood : Life and Uncertainty in a Military Community / Kenneth T. MacLeish.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

MacLeish, Kenneth T., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Iraq War, 2003-2011--Veterans--Mental health--United States.

Iraq War, 2003-2011.

Iraq War, 2003-2011--Social aspects--United States.

Iraq War, 2003-2011--Psychological aspects.

Families of military personnel--Texas--Fort Hood--Social conditions.

Families of military personnel.

Soldiers--Texas--Fort Hood.

Soldiers.

Fort Hood (Tex.)--Social conditions.

Fort Hood (Tex.).

United States. Army--Military life.

United States.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (279 p.)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2013]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Making War at Fort Hood offers an illuminating look at war through the daily lives of the people whose job it is to produce it. Kenneth MacLeish conducted a year of intensive fieldwork among soldiers and their families at and around the US Army's Fort Hood in central Texas. He shows how war's reach extends far beyond the battlefield into military communities where violence is as routine, boring, and normal as it is shocking and traumatic. Fort Hood is one of the largest military installations in the world, and many of the 55,000 personnel based there have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. MacLeish provides intimate portraits of Fort Hood's soldiers and those closest to them, drawing on numerous in-depth interviews and diverse ethnographic material. He explores the exceptional position that soldiers occupy in relation to violence--not only trained to fight and kill, but placed deliberately in harm's way and offered up to die. The death and destruction of war happen to soldiers on purpose. MacLeish interweaves gripping narrative with critical theory and anthropological analysis to vividly describe this unique condition of vulnerability. Along the way, he sheds new light on the dynamics of military family life, stereotypes of veterans, what it means for civilians to say "thank you" to soldiers, and other questions about the sometimes ordinary, sometimes agonizing labor of making war. Making War at Fort Hood is the first ethnography to examine the everyday lives of the soldiers, families, and communities who personally bear the burden of America's most recent wars.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Abbreviations

Prologue. "Don't Fuckin' Leave Any of This Shit Out"

Introduction

1. A Site of Exception

2. Heat, Weight, Metal, Gore, Exposure

3. Being Stuck and Other Problems in the Reproduction of Life

4. Vicissitudes of Love

5. War Economy

Postscript: So- called Resiliency

Acknowledgments

Appendix: Army Rank Structure

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 249-260) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9781299051409

1299051405

9781400846290

1400846293

OCLC:

826657889