Faith in the Fight tells a story of religion, soldiering, suffering, and death in the Great War. Recovering the thoughts and experiences of American troops, nurses, and aid workers through their letters, diaries, and memoirs, Jonathan Ebel describes how religion--primarily Christianity--encouraged these young men and women to fight and die, sustained them through war's chaos, and shaped their responses to the war's aftermath. The book reveals the surprising frequency with which Americans who fought viewed the war as a religious challenge that could lead to individual and national redemption. Believing in a "Christianity of the sword," these Americans responded to the war by reasserting their religious faith and proclaiming America God-chosen and righteous in its mission. And while the war sometimes challenged these beliefs, it did not fundamentally alter them. Revising the conventional view that the war was universally disillusioning, Faith in the Fight argues that the war in fact strengthened the religious beliefs of the Americans who fought, and that it helped spark a religiously charged revival of many prewar orthodoxies during a postwar period marked by race riots, labor wars, communist witch hunts, and gender struggles. For many Americans, Ebel argues, the postwar period was actually one of "reillusionment." Demonstrating the deep connections between Christianity and Americans' experience of the First World War, Faith in the Fight encourages us to examine the religious dimensions of America's wars, past and present, and to work toward a deeper understanding of religion and violence in American history.

This innovative study offers the first-ever comparison of the military roles played by commissars, political officers, and chaplains in military settings ranging from the armies of Cromwell, the Jacobins, the Nazis, the Soviets, and the United States. Despite the stark differences in the political systems of the countries of these disparate armed forces, Dale R. Herspring argues that there are certain critical functions that must be fulfilled in every military, regardless of its ideological orientation. Most vital are motivation, morale boosting, and political socialization. In addition, Herspring's comparative historical analysis decisively demonstrates that the roles of commissars, political officers, and chaplains alike have evolved in ways that are crucial yet rarely understood either by policymakers or scholars.

We Support You Letters of Encouragement for Our Troops Serving in Iraq and Afghanistan Imagine being separated from your friends and family, your own spouse and children, for months and even years? Imagine being on the frontlines, walking the streets of Baghdad, or fighting the Taliban on the border of Pakistan. Meanwhile, people back in America forget about your sacrifice and some even disparage your service to our country! We Support You: Letters of Encouragement for Our Troops Serving in Iraq and Afghanistan is an exhilarating compilation featuring hundreds of letters, poems, and stories that will touch your heart and make you proud to honor these brave servicemen and women who risk their lives daily for the freedoms we enjoy. In We Support You you'll encounter: - Letters from parents to their children stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. - Poems penned in honor of the service of the soldier. - Heartfelt thank-you notes to military personnel from ordinary civilians. Let We Support You stir up your faith and remind you that "freedom isn't free."

No longer distributed to depository libraries in tangible format (per ANTS-v9-#09)