Read complete books and articles on: Selective Service System

Selective Service - in U.S. history, term for conscription.

Conscription was established (1863) in the U.S. Civil War, but proved unpopular (see draft riots). The law authorized release from service to anyone who furnished a substitute and, at first, to those who paid $300. General conscription was reintroduced in World War I with the Selective Service Act of 1917. All men from 21 to 30 years of age (later extended 18 to 45), inclusive, had to register. Exemptions from service were granted to men who had dependent families, indispensable duties at home, or physical disabilities. Conscientious objector status was granted to members of pacifist religious organizations, but they had to perform alternative service. Other war objectors were imprisoned, where several died. By the end of World War I about 2,800,000 men had been inducted.

The United States first adopted peacetime conscription with the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. The act provided that not more than 900,000 men were to be in training at any one time, and it limited service to 12 months—later (1941) extended to 18 months. After the United States entered World War II, a new selective service act made men between 18 and 45 liable for military service and required all men between 18 and 65 to register. The terminal point of service was extended to six months after the war. From 1940 until 1947—when the wartime selective service act expired after extensions by Congress—over 10,000,000 men were inducted. A new selective service act was passed in 1948 that required all men between 18 and 26 to register and that made men from 19 to 26 liable for induction for 21 months' service, which would be followed by 5 years of reserve duty.

When the Korean War broke out, the 1948 law was replaced (1951) by the Universal Military Training and Service Act. The length of service was extended to 24 months, and the minimum age for induction was reduced to 18 1 / 2 years. The main purpose of the Reserve Forces Act of 1955 was to strengthen the reserve forces and the National Guard. It required six years of duty, including both reserve and active duty. The Military Selective Service Act of 1967 required all men between the ages of 18 and 26 to register for service. The regular exemptions along with educational deferments were granted. These loopholes and other technicalities tended to discriminate against working-class and poor men, and thus a higher percentage from these groups were drafted.

Due to this perceived discrimination by class and also because of the great unpopularity of the Vietnam War, conscription became a major social issue. There were numerous demonstrations at draft boards and induction centers. Many young men evaded the draft through technicalities or fraud; thousands fled the country or went to prison. In 1973 conscription was abolished in favor of an all-volunteer army. President Gerald R. Ford later granted clemency to many draft resisters. In 1980, Congress reinstituted draft registration for men 18 to 25 years old. If there were to be a crisis, registered men would be inducted as determined by age and a random lottery.

Show Excerpt Only

8 of the Best Books and Articles on: Selective Service System

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts (Chap. 2 "Selective Service Act") » Read Now
by Stephen M. Kohn. 217 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This book is the first account of the personal lives of the nearly 1,000 long-term political prisoners arrested under various sedition laws for their opposition to World War I, their trade union activities, or their unpopular political or religious beliefs. Based on the author's exclusive access to...
Read More

This book is the first account of the personal lives of the nearly 1,000 long-term political prisoners arrested under various sedition laws for their opposition to World War I, their trade union activities, or their unpopular political or religious beliefs. Based on the author's exclusive access to the uncensored prison files of many of these prisoners, and information obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act, Kohn relays the powerful prison experiences of some of America's most famous and colorful labor, socialist, and peace leaders. With over ten years of research, and access to tens of thousands of pages of never-before released U.S. Department of Justice records, Stephen Kohn has been able to recreate the actual prison experiences of these political prisoners.
Show less
2.

"Justice and the Highest Kind of Equality Require Discrimination": Citizenship, Dependency, and Conscription in the South, 1917-1919, in Journal of Southern History » Read Now
by K. Walter Hickel. 31 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
3.

The Truman Administration: Its Principles and Practice (Discussion of selective service begins on p. 163) » Read Now
by Louis W. Koenig. 398 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
4.

Crossing the Pond: The Native American Effort in World War II ("Bringing Them in Alive: Selective Service and Native Americans" begins on p. 41) » Read Now
by Jere' Bishop Franco. 232 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The Swastika Shadow over Native America: John Collier and the American Indian Federation
-- Bringing Them in Alive: Selective Service and Native Americans
-- The Return of the Native: American Indian Laborers
-- The Great Give-Away: Tribal Resources
-- Publicity, Persuasion, and Propaganda: Stereotyping...
Read More

The Swastika Shadow over Native America: John Collier and the American Indian Federation
-- Bringing Them in Alive: Selective Service and Native Americans
-- The Return of the Native: American Indian Laborers
-- The Great Give-Away: Tribal Resources
-- Publicity, Persuasion, and Propaganda: Stereotyping the Native American
-- Across the Blue Waters: The Santa Fe Indian Club
-- Empowering the Veteran: Postwar Civil Rights
Show less
5.

World War II and the American Indian (Discussion of the selective service system begins on p. 61) » Read Now
by Kenneth William Townsend. 278 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The first full ethnohistory of American Indian responses to, & participation in, World War II; beginning with the drift toward war in the 1930s, including their reactions to propaganda campaigns directed at them by Nazi sympathizers.
6.

The Old Order Amish Steering Committee: a Case Study in Organizational Evolution, in Social Forces » Read Now
by Marc A. Olshan. 14 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
7.

Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam (Discussion of the selective service system begins on p. 28) » Read Now
by Christian G. Appy. 365 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Working-Class War explores the experience and attitudes of the 2.5 million American enlisted men who served in Vietnam, painting a compelling portrait of the war as it was lived by the troops who fought it.
8.

The National Guard and National Defense: The Mobilization of the Guard in World War II (Discussion of the selective service system begins on p. 79) » Read Now
by Robert Bruce Sligh, Roger Beaumont. 187 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

This book is the first detailed look at the most important event in National Guard history--the complete mobilization of the Guard during World War II. After 1933, members of the Guard were not only soldiers of the state but of the nation as well. The compromises, conflicts, emotions, and legal...
Read More

This book is the first detailed look at the most important event in National Guard history--the complete mobilization of the Guard during World War II. After 1933, members of the Guard were not only soldiers of the state but of the nation as well. The compromises, conflicts, emotions, and legal precedents involved in the 1940-41 mobilization were to affect the National Guard and national defense strategy for many years to come. Sligh's study demonstrates the importance of the political situation between the Guard and the Army and its consequences for later defense policy and legislation.
Show less