The Rise of the Military Welfare State

by Jennifer Mittelstadt

Overview

This study of US military benefits “offers a disturbing view of the armed forces as a high-value target in political clashes over public assistance” (The Nation).

Since the end of the draft, the U.S. Army has prided itself on its patriotic volunteers who heed the call to “Be All That You Can Be.” But beneath the recruitment slogans, the army promised volunteers something more tangible: a social safety net including medical care, education, housing assistance, legal services, and other privileges that had long been reserved for career soldiers. The Rise of the Military Welfare State examines how the U.S. Army’s extension of benefits to enlisted men and women created a military welfare system of unprecedented size and scope.

In the 1970s, widespread opposition to the draft led to the establishment of America’s all-volunteer army. For this to succeed, a new strategy was needed for attracting and retaining soldiers. The army solved the problem, Jennifer Mittelstadt shows, by promising to take care of its own. While the United States dismantled its civilian welfare system in the 1980s and 1990s, army benefits continued to expand. Mittelstadt also examines how critics of this expansion fought to roll back its signature achievements, even as a new era of war began.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674915398
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/18/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	436
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Jennifer Mittelstadt is Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Army Takes Care of Its Own 1

1 Army Benefits in a Free Market Era 17

2 Is Military Service a Job? 46

3 The Threat of a Social Welfare Institution 73

4 Supporting the Military in Reagan's America 94

5 Army Wives Demand Support 120

6 Seeming Christian Family Values 148

7 A Turn to Self-Reliance 171

8 Outsourcing Soldier and Family Support 190

Epilogue: Army Welfare at War in the Twenty-First Century 220

Appendix 231

Abbreviations 237

Notes 241

Acknowledgments 315

Index 319

Editorial Reviews

A truly important book. Mittelstadt shows how the military welfare state has contributed substantially to upward mobility for both soldiers and their families. Her excellent account is especially crucial today, when outsourcing and privatization threaten the standards of living of service members and civilians alike.

Linda Gordon

Mittelstadt describes the emergence of a khaki safety net extolled as tangible evidence of the nation’s commitment to its soldiers’ well-being, and she traces how this support system was undermined by a combination of military and civilian agendas. This is a provocative, informed, and disturbing book that provides an essential perspective on the modern U.S. armed forces.

Brian M. Linn

The Rise of the Military Welfare State is a thought-provoking examination of growing U.S. militarism and the economic costs of the transition from a conscripted to an all-volunteer (or all-mercenary) force. It will interest policy-makers, military professionals, and, not least, the taxpayers who have subsidized American military endeavors over the past forty years.

Christopher Rein

Jennifer Mittelstadt offers a disturbing view of the armed forces as a high-value target in political clashes over public assistance… Politicians have pitted the military against civilians in the battle over social benefits, while barely attending to the needs of service members and their families.

The Nation - Martha Saxton