Casualty Gap: The Causes and Consequences of American Wartime Inequalities

Casualty Gap: The Causes and Consequences of American Wartime Inequalities book cover

Casualty Gap: The Causes and Consequences of American Wartime Inequalities

Author(s): Douglas L Kriner (Author), Francis X Shen (Author)

  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • Publication Date: 28 April 2010
  • Edition: Illustrated
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 320 pages
  • ISBN-10: 0195390962
  • ISBN-13: 9780195390964

Book Description

Many have long suspected that when America takes up arms it is a rich man''s war, but a poor man''s fight. Despite these concerns about social inequality in military sacrifice, the hard data to validate such claims has been kept out of public view. In The Casualty Gap Douglas Kriner and Francis Shen renew the debate over unequal sacrifice by bringing to light mountains of new evidence on the inequality dimensions of American wartime casualties. Theydemonstrate unequivocally that since the conclusion of World War II communities at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder have borne a disproportionate share of the human costs of war. Moreover, they show for the first time that when Americans are explicitly confronted with evidence of this inequality, they becomemarkedly less supportive of the nation''s war efforts. The Casualty Gap also uncovers how wartime deaths affect entire communities. Citizens who see the high price war exacts on friends and neighbors become more likely to oppose war and to vote against the political leaders waging it than residents of low-casualty communities. Moreover, extensive empirical evidence connects higher community casualty rates in Korea and Vietnam to lower levels of trust in government, interest in politics, and electoral and non-electoral participation. Inthis way, the casualty gap threatens the very vibrancy of American democracy by depressing civic engagement in high-casualty communities for years after the last gun falls silent. The Casualty Gap should be read by all who care about bringing to light inequalities in military sacrifice and understanding theeffects of war on society and democracy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Commendable."--The Nation

"The Casualty Gap's thoughtful analyses and arguments not only break down the larger statistical picture, but reveal how single communities respond to news of their own soldiers dying. Most disturbing is the clear pattern of civic and political disengagement in communities bearing the greatest sacrifices and most in need of increasingly unpopular government assistance."--Michigan War Studies Review

"An important book...Shen and Kriner are especially innovative in using multiple sources of evidence and methods to connect participation in recent wards to political participation at home. Summing Up: Recommended."--CHOICE

"Provocative and intriguing."--John Mueller, Professor of Political Science, The Ohio State University, and author of Atomic Obsession

"This inventive and deeply troubling book teaches that our volunteer military allocates the ultimate costs of war very unevenly, raising fundamental questions about distributive justice. Importantly, it also chronicles the effects of exposure to these costs, and isolation from them, on mass opinion, trust in government, and levels of political engagement, thus offering a significant contribution to understanding vexing trends in mass attitudes and political behavior."--Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University, and former president of the American Political Science Association

"Deep into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. national media is devoting increasing amounts of coverage to the variable costs of war. It is a rare piece of scholarship that tackles a highly politicized issue--this one, in fact, sizzles--but remains balances, fair, and informative. this book is just loaded with fresh empirical insights. For the comprehensiveness of its data and the variety of its empirical resesarch methods, Kriner and Shen's book will quickly establish itself as the leading academic treatment of the topic."--William G. Howell, Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics, University of Chicago

Review

An authoritative account of which Americans really bear the burden of combat, The Casualty Gap is the first book to comprehensively examine the divide from War Two to the Iraq war.

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