Through examinations of U.S. military racial and gender integration efforts and its handling of sexuality, this book argues that the need for personnel filling the ranks has forced the armed services to be pragmatically progressive since World War II. The integration of African Americans and women into the United States Armed Forces after World War II coincided with major social movements in which marginalized civilians demanded equal citizenship rights. As this book explores, due to personnel needs, the military was a leading institution in its opening of positions to women and African Americans and its offering of educational and economic opportunities that in many cases were not available to them in the civilian world. By opening positions to African Americans and women and remaking its "where boys become men" image, the military was an institutional leader on the issue of social equality in the second half of the 20th century. The pushback against gay men and women wishing to serve openly in the forces, however, revealed the limits of the military's pragmatic progressivism. This text investigates how policymakers have defined who belongs in the military and counts as a soldier, and examines how the need to attract new recruits led to the opening of the forces to marginalized groups and the rebranding of the services.

"Integrating the US Military is an edited collection that examines the US Army's role and place in progressive social change through the lens of the military experience of African Americans, women, and gays since World War II. By making this long overdue comparison, the editors argue this anthology demonstrates how the challenges launched against the racial, gender, and sexual status quo in the years after World War II transformed overarching ideas about power, citizenship, and America's role in the world. This anthology's major contribution is synthesizing recent scholarly work on the history of minorities and women in the US military. It does so by examining connections between GIs and civilian society in the context of ideologies of race, gender, and sexuality. Given the militarization of American society since World War II, revealing the links between these legally marginalized groups within the Armed Services is historically significant in its own right. At the same time, this comparison also sheds new light on a broad range of issues that affected civilian society, such as affirmative action, integration, marriage laws, and sexual harassment. Integrating the US Military is a book designed for college students, military professionals, policy makers, and general readers. Allowing readers to view the history of several civil rights movements within the Armed Forces will prompt them to rethink the way they understand the history of social movements. It will also help them to better understand the relationship between the military and American society. Finally, readers will gain a historical perspective on recent debates about the rights of gays in the military and the implications of deploying women in combat."--Provided by publisher.

"Through examinations of the U.S. military's racial and gender integration efforts, and its handling of sexuality, this book argues that the need for personnel filling the ranks has forced the armed services to be pragmatically progressive since World War II. Includes an introduction that offers historical context for understanding the U.S. military's relationship to social change, provides an in-depth examination of race, gender, and sexuality within the U.S. military since World War II and a conclusion that explores the future of military progressivism."--

Examines the myriad consequences of World War II for racial attitudes and the presidential response to civil rights.

"Through examinations of the U.S. military's racial and gender integration efforts, and its handling of sexuality, this book argues that the need for personnel filling the ranks has forced the armed services to be pragmatically progressive since World War II. Includes an introduction that offers historical context for understanding the U.S. military's relationship to social change, provides an in-depth examination of race, gender, and sexuality within the U.S. military since World War II and a conclusion that explores the future of military progressivism."--

Examines how African Americans' participation in the nation's wars after President Truman's order to intergrate the military, and their protracted struggles for equal citizenship, galvanized the antiwar activism that reshaped their struggles for freedom.

The century-long struggle to achieve equality for America's black soldiers and sailors, in a stirring narrative history by the author of Root and Branch