When is wartime? On the surface, it is a period of time in which a
society is at war. But we now live in what President Obama has called
"an age without surrender ceremonies," as the Administration announced
an "end to conflict in Iraq," even though conflict on the ground is
ongoing. It is no longer easy to distinguish between wartime and
peacetime. In this inventive meditation on war, time, and the law, Mary
Dudziak argues that wartime is not as discrete a time period as we like
to think. Instead, America has been engaged in some form of ongoing
overseas armed conflict for over a century. Meanwhile policy makers and
the American public continue to view wars as exceptional events that
eventually give way to normal peace times. This has two consequences.
First, because war is thought to be exceptional, "wartime" remains a
shorthand argument justifying extreme actions like torture and detention
without trial. Second, ongoing warfare is enabled by the inattention of
the American people. More disconnected than ever from the wars their
nation is fighting, public disengagement leaves us without political
restraints on the exercise of American war powers.
Reviews:
"Closely argued and clearly written, this is a scholarly work with popular appeal." -- Publisher's Weekly
"Mary Dudziak's new book, War Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences,
is a crucial document. Her smooth foray into legal and political
history reveals that in not just the past decade but the past century,
wartime has become a more or less permanent feature of the American
experience, though we fail to recognize it . . . Dudziak assembles an
intellectual Rubik's Cube, playing with ideas of time, law, killing and
politics, and arranging them into a pattern that all but eliminates the
distinctions we long assumed to have existed between war and peace." -- Peter Maass, The Nation
"Humanists
will regard much Dudziak's text as an anecdotally rich and sprightly
written reestablishment of the threshold claim that culture and society
affect temporal categories and experience . . . For humans, at least,
individual and collective experience is not that of the clock ticking
equivalent seconds but the packaging of meaning through temporal
definition. 'Wartime,' Dudziak can therefore add, is not an objective
fact about history but a fashion of assigning significance with its own
cultural style and political implications. Dudziak reveals and exploits
this truth beautifully." --Samuel Moyn,
Lawfare.com"Drawing thoughtfully
from the literature of legal studies, political science, history and
sociology, Dudziak crafts a fascinating and nuanced narrative tracing
the progressive expansion of U.S. national security interests and the
complex ramifications." --Gordon M. Goldstein,
Washington Post
"For over a decade since 9/11, U.S. forces have been waging war. Yet is
the nation itself 'at war'? In this timely and provocative book, Mary
Dudziak shows why this question has become so difficult to answer-and
warns of the dangers inherent in our failure to do so." --Andrew J .
Bacevich, author of Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War
"War Time turns our notions of both 'war' and 'time' upside down. This
thought-provoking book forces us to realize that war is not an exception
to 'normal' peacetime, but rather that wartime has become the norm. The
implications of perpetual wartime are profound, for law, politics, and
daily life. Mary Dudziak has again brought her keen cultural, historical
and legal insights to bear on a subject of critical
importance."--Elaine Tyler May, Regents Professor, University of
Minnesota
"Taking law as her focal point but ranging much more widely, Mary
Dudziak's provocative meditation on what we mean in speaking of a 'time'
of war invites readers to reflect on how we think about war itself. It
should change our understanding of what-and when-war 'is' for
Americans."--Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law,
Harvard Law School
"War Time is one of those rare books that can entirely reorient how one
thinks about the world. By showing the reader what Americans have
meant-and have come to mean-by 'wartime,' Mary Dudziak shows us
assumptions about war and peace that govern political and legal thought
without anyone noticing. This is an intellectual tour de force, and
beautifully written to boot."--H. Jefferson Powell, Duke
Law School