This anthology compiles some of the best new work on the formation and impact of veterans’ policy, the politics of veterans’ issues, and veterans’ political engagement over the course of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries in the United States. To date, this research on veterans’ policy and veterans’ politics has remained segregated within disparate social science disciplines and their subfields. To counter this trend, Veterans’ Policies, Veterans’ Politics brings together the work of scholars in history, the history of medicine and science, and political science to highlight veterans’ i ... More

This anthology compiles some of the best new work on the formation and impact of veterans’ policy, the politics of veterans’ issues, and veterans’ political engagement over the course of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries in the United States. To date, this research on veterans’ policy and veterans’ politics has remained segregated within disparate social science disciplines and their subfields. To counter this trend, Veterans’ Policies, Veterans’ Politics brings together the work of scholars in history, the history of medicine and science, and political science to highlight veterans’ issues as a field of interdisciplinary inquiry and debate unto itself. The work of the contributors to this collection asks us to examine veterans’ issues as a window into the larger topics of modern American history and to explore the continuing political implications of military service. Topics of analysis such as social welfare, health care, disability, and employment invariably come into sharper focus. But the essays also prod us into recognizing the centrality of veterans’ issues and politics to modern state formation, the rise of interest group politics, understandings of citizenship, and American political culture and behavior. Ultimately, this volume emphasizes the need and importance of veterans’ scholarship to understanding the modern United States.