Synopses & Reviews
Christian Bagge, an Iraq War veteran, lost both his legs in a roadside bomb attack on his Humvee in 2006. Months after the accident, outfitted with sleek new prosthetic legs, he jogged alongside President Bush for a photo op at the White House. The photograph served many functions, one of them being to revive faith in an American martial idealandmdash;that war could be fought without permanent casualties, and that innovative technology could easily repair warandrsquo;s damage. When Bagge was awarded his Purple Heart, however, military officials asked him to wear pants to the ceremony, saying that photos of the event should be andldquo;soft on the eyes.andrdquo; Defiant, Bagge wore shorts.
America has grappled with the questions posed by injured veterans since its founding, and with particular force since the early twentieth century: What are the nationandrsquo;s obligations to those who fight in its name? And when does warandrsquo;s legacy of disability outweigh the nationandrsquo;s interests at home and abroad? In Paying with Their Bodies, John M. Kinder traces the complicated, intertwined histories of war and disability in modern America. Focusing in particular on the decades surrounding World War I, he argues that disabled veterans have long been at the center of two competing visions of American war: one that highlights the relative safety of US military intervention overseas; the other indelibly associating American war with injury, mutilation, and suffering. Kinder brings disabled veterans to the center of the American war story and shows that when we do so, the history of American war over the last century begins to look very different. War can no longer be seen as a discrete experience, easily left behind; rather, its human legacies are felt for decades.
The first book to examine the history of American warfare through the lens of its troubled legacy of injury and disability, Paying with Their Bodies will force us to think anew about war and its painful costs.
Review
and#8220;Kinder convincingly shows the stubborn persistence of American discourses about disabled soldiers despite the extraordinary variations in the wars that produced those soldiers. He resists unduly flattening things outand#8212;things do change as the wars change. But anyone following discourses about the disabled of post-9/11 wars will find much that is familiar, and much that is powerful, in this account.and#8221;
Review
"For the wounded soldier, the shadow of war extends long after the shooting stops. By placing the disabled soldier at the center of the history of American warfare since the Civil War, John M. Kinder has provided a disturbing and important account of this countryand#8217;s engagement with war."
Review
"We hear a lot about the 'human cost of war,' but Kinderand#8217;s book not only exposes us to its dismembering horror, but also asks us to follow disabled service-personnel back into the civilian world after the war, where they struggle to reinvent their lives. It is a compassionate account of terrible suffering, which many veterans donand#8217;t survive. The big question remains: why have we still not learnt the lesson of war?"
Review
and#8220;Kinder has written a powerful and essential history of how disabled veterans came to be seen as a and#8216;problem.and#8217; His unflinching accounts of battlefield injuries illuminate the social costs of war. The impact of disabilityand#8212;from Civil War amputations to World War I and#8216;shell shockand#8217;and#8212;was driven not only by changes over time in combat, but also by the way injuries were viewed at home. War injury was drawn upon in both pro- and anti-war political struggles, and scandals over veteransand#8217; care periodically rocked Washington. Veterans organizations like the American Legion divided over whether veterans with disabilities needed paternal care or self-empowerment. Ultimately the and#8216;problemand#8217; of disabled veterans went beyond the need for services. They embodied warand#8217;s ongoing impact, complicating cultural and political efforts to leave war behind. An important contribution.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;Kinder mixes in sketches of well-known disabled veteransandmdash;including Harold Russell (WWII), Ron Kovic (the Vietnam War), and Tammy Duckworth (the Iraq War)andmdash;with bigger-picture issues involving the social and political impacts of veteransandrsquo; disabilities. Itandrsquo;s a well-written, though academically tinged, tome that illuminates the long-lasting human legacy of Americaandrsquo;s wars.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;An unflinching look at the true cost of battlefield bloodshed. . . The sheer excellence of the writing and Kinderandrsquo;s reliance on factual vignettes . . . give the text a sensuous immediacy. Kinder shies away from war pornography, but he refuses to gloss over the gruesome effects of battle. . . I was left at the end of Paying with Their Bodies with the gnawing question implicit in the book: Is it worth it? What have we gained by our wars that counterbalances the monstrous death and disfigurement inflicted? At what point do warandrsquo;s dividends of destroyed bodies and minds outweigh the gains? Kinder leaves us to answer these questions for ourselves.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;A valuable history. . . . Kinderandrsquo;s concern is not the multiple problems of individual disabled vets, but the capitalized Problem they collectively present to U.S. policymakers. . . . Kinder focuses his book on World War I and hopes to elevate disabled veterans to the center of our thinking about warfare.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Kinder shows that the war-disabled have always been exploited for political purposes by isolationists, pacifists or conservatives seeking to influence American foreign policy.andrdquo;
About the Author
John M. Kinder is assistant professor of American studies and history at Oklahoma State University.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Part I. The Industrialization of Injury
Thomas H. Graham
1. and#147;To Bind Up the Nationand#8217;s Woundsand#8221;: How the Disabled Veteran Became a Problem
Arthur Guy Empey
2. and#147;The Horror for Which We Are Waitingand#8221;: Anxieties of Injury in World War I
Part II. The Aftermath of Battle
Elsie Ferguson in and#147;Hero Landand#8221;
3. and#147;Thinking Ahead of the Crippled Yearsand#8221;: Carrying On in an Age of Normalcy
Sunday at the Hippodrome
4. and#147;The Cripple Ceases to Beand#8221;: The Rehabilitation Movement in Great War America
Part III. Mobilizing Injury
The Sweet Bill
5. and#147;For the Living Dead I Work and Prayand#8221;: Veteransand#8217; Groups and the Benefits of Buddyhood
Forget-Me-Not Day
6. and#147;For the Memand#8217;ry of Warriors Wracked with Painand#8221;: Disabled Doughboys and American Memory
James M. Kirwin
7. and#147;What Is Wrong with This Picture?and#8221; Disabled Veterans in Interwar Peace Culture
Part IV. Old Battles, New Wars
Harold Russell
8. and#147;The Shining Plate of Prestigeand#8221;: Disabled Veterans in the American Century
Tammy Duckworth
Epilogue: Toward a New Veteranology
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index