Life Course Perspectives on Military Service [Paperback]

This edited volume provides a comprehensive and critical review of what we know about military service and the life course, what we dont know, and what we need to do to better understand the role of military service in shaping people's lives. It demonstrates that the military, like colleges and prisons, is a key social institution that engages individuals in early adulthood and shapes processes of cumulative (dis)advantage over the life course.  The chapters provide topical synthesizes of the vast but diffuse research literatures on military service and the life course, while the volume as a whole helps to set the agenda for the next generation of data collection and scholarship. Chapter authors pay particular attention to how the military has changed over time; how experiences of military service vary across cohorts and persons with different characteristics; how military service affects the lives of service members spouses, children, and families; and the linkages between research and policy.

Preface  Janet M. Wilmoth and Andrew S. London.  Foreword  Glen H. Elder, Jr.  1. Life-Course Perspectives on Military Service: An Introduction  Janet M. Wilmoth and Andrew S. London  2. The Military as a Transforming Social Agent: Integration into or Isolation from Normal Adult Roles?  Ryan Kelty and David R. Segal  3. Womens Lives in Wartime: The American Civil War and World War II  DAnn Campbell  4. Racial-Ethnicity and Immigration Status in the U.S. Military  Amy C. Lutz  5. Military Service and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Lives  Maria T. Brown  6. Military Service as a Pathway to Early Socioeconomic Achievement for Disadvantaged Groups  Pamela R. Bennett lc�