Read complete books and articles on: Conscription in the U.S.

Conscription - compulsory enrollment of personnel for service in the armed forces. Obligatory service in the armed forces has existed since ancient times in many cultures, including the samurai in Japan, warriors in the Aztec Empire, citizen militiamen in ancient Greece and Rome, and aristocrats and their peasants or yeomen during the Middle Ages in Europe. In England, compulsory military service was employed on the local level in the Anglo-Saxon fyrd as early as the 9th cent. In the 16th cent. Machiavelli argued that every able-bodied man in a nation was a potential soldier and could by means of conscription be required to serve in the armed forces. Conscription in the modern sense of the term dates from 1793, when the Convention of the French Republic raised an army of 300,000 men from the provinces. A few years later, conscription enabled Napoleon I to build his tremendous fighting forces. Following Napoleon's example, Muhammad Ali of Egypt raised a powerful army in the 1830s. Compulsory peacetime recruitment was introduced (1811–12) by Prussia. Mass armies, raised at little cost by conscription, completely changed the scale of battle by the time of the Napoleonic Wars. The institution of conscription, which was increasingly justified by statesmen on grounds of national defense and economic stimulation, spread to other European nations and Japan in the 19th cent. At the outbreak of World War I, Great Britain adopted conscription and used it again in World War II; it was abolished in 1962. Though little used in the United States prior to the Civil War, conscription was used by both sides in that war and in most large-scale U.S. wars since, often with great controversy. Most of the important military powers of the 20th cent. have used conscription to raise their armed forces. China, because of its large population, has a policy of selective conscription. Impressment is the forcible mustering of recruits. It lacks the scope and bureaucratic form of conscription. Many countries throughout the world, such as Israel, have mandatory military service; a few allow for alternate civilian service or release for conscientious objectors. See selective service.

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11 of the Best Books and Articles on: Conscription in the U.S.

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

She Didn't Raise Her Boy to Be a Slacker: Motherhood, Conscription, and the Culture of the First World War, in Feminist Studies » Read Now
by Susan Zeiger. 34 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...military conscription in U.S. history. The passage...organizing a No-Conscription League in early May...handful. The New York...Goldman No-Conscription League...entry into...
2.

Conscription and Conflict in the Confederacy (1924) » Read Now
by Albert Burton Moore. 367 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
3.

The Military in the Service of Society and Democracy: The Challenge of the Dual-Role Military ("Racial Organization and Integration in Conscript Service" begins on p. 103) » Read Now
by Daniella Ashkenazy. 232 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This volume examines civil-military relations in general and nonmilitary functions in the service of society and democracy in particular in six different nations, against the backdrop of the Israeli experience with a dual-role military. Since its inception, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has...
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This volume examines civil-military relations in general and nonmilitary functions in the service of society and democracy in particular in six different nations, against the backdrop of the Israeli experience with a dual-role military. Since its inception, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has functioned as a very effective fighting force while also fulfilling many core nonmilitary roles as a powerful, educational, and remedial agent engaged in strengthening the fabric of Israeli society. The inner workings of the IDF in this area--the subject and dynamics of its broad social agenda, including the dilemmas inherent in education toward broad intellectual autonomy within a regimented system such as the military--are presented, for the first time before a non-Israeli audience, in detail (and with much candor) by both high echelon IDF personnel and junior officers in conscript service directly responsible for carrying out these missions.
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4.

Womanpower for a Superpower: The National Security Implications of Women in the United States Army, in World Affairs » Read Now
by Frank A. Partlow Jr. 28 pgs.

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...troops deployed in Europe, between the other two...return to U.S. conscription over increased...social costs of conscription which they...improvements in the quality...
5.

Getting US into War ("40 Million Conscripts" begins on p. 361, "Conscription Is Opposed" begins on p. 396, and "The Tide Turns against Conscription" begins on p. 426) » Read Now
by Porter Sargent. 640 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...BONDS -- FINANCING THE U.S.S.R. -- THE AVALANCHE OF GOLD -- A $15 DUTY...GREAT BRITAIN -- "JOINT ACTIVITY" IN THE ORIENT -- PACIFIC ISLES...UNDERGRADUATES RESIST -- CLARK...
6.

The New York City Draft Riots: Their Significance for American Society and Politics in the Age of the Civil War » Read Now
by Iver Bernstein. 363 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

For five days in July 1863, at the height of the Civil War, New York City was under siege. Angry rioters burned draft offices, closed factories, destroyed railroad tracks and telegraph lines, and hunted policemen and soldiers. Before long, the rioters turned their murderous wrath against the black...
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For five days in July 1863, at the height of the Civil War, New York City was under siege. Angry rioters burned draft offices, closed factories, destroyed railroad tracks and telegraph lines, and hunted policemen and soldiers. Before long, the rioters turned their murderous wrath against the black community. In the end, at least 105 people were killed, making the draft riots the most violent insurrection in American history. In this vividly written book, Iver Bernstein tells the compelling story of the New York City draft riots. He details how what began as a demonstration against the first federal draft soon expanded into a sweeping assault against the local institutions and personnel of Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party as well as a grotesque race riot. Bernstein identifies participants, dynamics, causes and consequences, and demonstrates that the "winners" and "losers" of the July 1863 crisis were anything but clear, even after five regiments rushed north from Gettysburg restored order. In a tour de force of historical detection, Bernstein shows that to evaluate the significance of the riots we must enter the minds and experiences of a cast of characters--Irish and German immigrant workers, Wall Street businessmen who frantically debated whether to declare martial law, nervous politicians in Washington and at City Hall. Along the way, he offers new perspectives on a wide range of topics: Civil War society and politics, patterns of race, ethnic and class relations, the rise of organized labor, styles of leadership, philanthropy and reform, strains of individualism, and the rise of machine politics in Boss Tweed's Tammany regime. An in-depth study of one of the most troubling and least understood crises in American history, The New York City Draft Riots is the first book to reveal the broader political and historical context--the complex of social, cultural and political relations--that made the bloody events of July 1863 possible.
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7.

A More Perfect Union: The Impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on the Constitution (Chap. XIII "Military Government and Conscription: Terrible Machines, Capital When under Good Control") » Read Now
by Harold M. Hyman. 588 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
8.

The Confederate Congress (Chap. VI "Conscription under Attack") » Read Now
by Wilfred Buck Yearns. 293 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
9.

Over Here: The First World War and American Society (Chap. 3 "'You're in the Army Now'") » Read Now
by David M. Kennedy. 404 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
10.

Good Americans: Italian and Jewish Immigrants during the First World War (Part I "Your Country Needs You") » Read Now
by Christopher M. Sterba. 271 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Among the Americans who joined the ranks of the Doughboys fighting World War I were thousands of America's newest residents. Good Americans examines the contributions of Italian and Jewish immigrants, both on the homefront and overseas, in the Great War. While residing in strong, insular...
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Among the Americans who joined the ranks of the Doughboys fighting World War I were thousands of America's newest residents. Good Americans examines the contributions of Italian and Jewish immigrants, both on the homefront and overseas, in the Great War. While residing in strong, insular communities, both groups faced a barrage of demands to participate in a conflict that had been raging in their home countries for nearly three years. Italians and Jews "did their bit" in relief, recruitment, conservation, and war bond campaigns, while immigrants and second-generation ethnic soldiers fought on the Western front. Within a year of the Armistice, they found themselves redefined as foreigners and perceived as a major threat to American life, rather than remembered as participants in its defense. Wartime experiences, Christopher Sterba argues, served to deeply politicize first and second generation immigrants, greatly accelerating their transformation from relatively powerless newcomers to a major political force in the United States during the New Deal and beyond.
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11.

The Confederate Republic: A Revolution against Politics (Discussion of conscription begins on p. 138) » Read Now
by George C. Rable. 416 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Although much has been written about the ways in which Confederate politics affected the course of the Civil War, George Rable is the first historian to investigate Confederate political culture in its own right. Focusing on the assumptions, values, and beliefs that formed the foundation of...
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Although much has been written about the ways in which Confederate politics affected the course of the Civil War, George Rable is the first historian to investigate Confederate political culture in its own right. Focusing on the assumptions, values, and beliefs that formed the foundation of Confederate political ideology, Rable reveals how Southerners attempted to purify the political process and avoid what they saw as the evils of parties and partisanship. According to Rable, secession marked the beginning of a revolution against politics in which the Confederacy's founding fathers saw themselves as the true heirs of the American Revolution. Nevertheless, factionalism developed as the war dragged on, with Confederate nationalists emphasizing political unity and support for President Jefferson Davis's administration and libertarian dissenters warning of the dangers of a centralized Confederate government. Both sides claimed to be the legitimate defenders of a genuine Southern republicanism and ofConfederate nationalism, and the conflict between them carried over from the strictly political sphere to matters of military strategy, civil religion, and education. Consulting a wide range of sources, including newspapers, sermons, contemporary textbooks, political correspondence, and military documents, Rable constructs an analytical narrative of Confederate political culture, arguing that it did more to strengthen the Confederacy than weaken it. He concludes that despite the war's outcome, the anti-political legacy of the Confederate republic had a profound impact on the future of Southern politics.
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