Which citizens have fought America's wars? Which ones should fight in the future, and how should they be recruited? Should military or other national service be an obligation for every citizen? David Segal's probing look at the complex issues behind these questions tells us much about the changing manpower needs of our armed forces and about the evolution of civil-military relations in the United States. Segal analyzes the mobilization, contributions, and limitations of drafted, reservist, and volunteer forces from the early days of the republic to the present. In the process, he shows how Americans have come to separate the benefits of citizenship from service to their country. Symptomatic of this separation is the current reliance on an all-volunteer military, a system that treats military service more as an occupation and opportunity for self-advancement than as a civic duty and obligation. Drawing on a vast interdisciplinary literature in American history, sociology, political science, and economics, Segal illuminates the ways demographics, weapons technology, international relations, scientific management, and social policies have all affected the composition of America's armed forces. He also shows how the military anticipated and expanded the American welfare system and played a pivotal role in creating better opportunities for minorities and women. The capabilities and performance of U.S. armed forces in future conflicts will depend on a thorough understanding of and informed response to the crucial manpower issues Segal discusses. His thoughtful study should be required reading for military professionals and policymakers and will be of interest to anyone concerned about the future of this country's armed forces.

In the early l8OOs, Carl Von Clausewitz proposed his now famous "trinity" War is not waged by an independent military, but is influenced by three elements -- the military, the government, and the will of the people. Of course, an essential component of the military are the service members, without them a military can not exist. How a society fills the ranks of its armed forces is therefore an important dimension of the military and how it wages war. In recent years, the importance of the American soldier in military strategy and policy seems to have been ignored. Despite voluminous writings on strategy, unity of command, span of control, modernization, and leadership, there is one topic largely overlooked by the military strategists and thinkers - acquiring manpower. As a result of this lack of focus three of the four military services, have had to face the failure of meeting their recruiting requirements. Without troops there is no military without them war or conflicts could not be waged.

T h i s i s w h at G e n e r at i o n Z i s say i n g w i t h r e s p e c t to m i l i ta ry s e rv i c e .The all-volunteer force that has served our country well for more than 50 years is at a critical inflection point. Today, recruiters are struggling to bring enough Zoomers into the armed services. Mismatched fundamental ideals, divergent beliefs about the workplace, and other sociocultural influences have contributed to the United States military scrambling to get a grasp on how to appeal to Gen Z. Through the use of personal life stories and macro analysis, this book explains why military recruiting in the United States is at an all-time low in order to suggest ways that American society and its leaders can fix this issue. We must rebuild the value proposition of military service by demonstrating the benefits of the world's greatest physical social network.

Based on a rich array of sources that capture the voices of both political leaders and ordinary Americans, Uncle Sam Wants You offers a vivid and provocative new interpretation of American political history, revealing how the tensions of mass mobilization during World War I led to a significant increase in power for the federal government. Christopher Capozzola shows how, when the war began, Americans at first mobilized society by stressing duty, obligation, and responsibility over rights and freedoms. But the heated temper of war quickly unleashed coercion on an unprecedented scale, making wartime America the scene of some of the nation's most serious political violence, including notorious episodes of outright mob violence. To solve this problem, Americans turned over increasing amounts of power to the federal government. In the end, whether they were some of the four million men drafted under the Selective Service Act or the tens of millions of home-front volunteers, Americans of the World War I era created a new American state, and new ways of being American citizens.