In a recent Bloomberg.com op-ed, Max Hastings decried the lack of military history research and teaching by university faculty today. Hastings claimed that “in centers of learning across North America, the study of the past in general, and of wars in particular, is in spectacular eclipse.” He suggested the supposed antipathy to histories of war appeared rooted in faculty hostility to the subject.[1]

While historians on social media panned Hastings’ column, this panel takes as one of its objectives showing the study of war is alive and well. All four of our papers focus on the relationship between war and gender and racial ideologies and practices. Providing fodder for the rich comparative discussions the AHA is known for, we offer 20^th and 21^st century case studies from Oceania, North America, and Europe.

Drawing on his research into World War One New Zealand, Matt Basso will discuss the place of military service within white settler masculinity. He argues that as capitalism changed settler societies, the martial imperative, even in times of war, was questioned by settler men and women who contended controversially that home front labor was more important to the protection of settler families, the nation, and even the British Empire. Basso will tie this to his work on American masculinity during World War II. John Kinder illuminates an intriguing window onto the World War II gender order in Oceania, the U.S., and Europe by plumbing attitudes about women workers in wartime zoos. Kinder shows the effort to contain women, the racialized labor pools some nations mobilized to avoid empowering them, and the ways women attempted to maneuver around social limitations. Kara Vuic picks up this thread in her research on American women and the draft. Vuic recounts the success women have had in breaking the brass ceiling and gaining combat roles. Paradoxically, conscripting women remains incredibly controversial—and, Vuic argues, deeply revealing of the relationship between war and gender ideologies. Meredith Kleykamp and Han Kleman conclude the formal part of our session by analyzing what a survey given to high school students from 1976 to the present tells us about the racial and gender attitudes of young Americans expecting to enter the military and those hoping to avoid it. Kleykamp and Kleman’s research overtly speaks to question about racism and sexism among servicemembers and our wider society.

Hastings is not incorrect about the continuing interest in war studies. Each of us teach large classes on the subject at five different universities. We range in rank from PhD student to full professor and have departmental homes in gender studies, American Studies, sociology, and history. All of us have written well-received books and articles on other aspects of war and society. We look forward to also drawing on our expertise in those areas as we engage audience members interested in the wars and places we focus on, and those more broadly intrigued by gender history, histories of race, and links to our contemporary moment.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-31/max-hastings-u-s-universities-declare-war-on-military-history