Citizen-Soldiers and Manly Warriors - by Claire R Snyder (Paperback)

About the Book

What happens in a tradition that links citizenship with soldiering when women become citizens? Citizen Soldiers and Manly Warriors provides an in-depth analysis of the theory and practice of the citizen-soldier in historical context. Using a postmodern feminist lens, Snyder re...

Book Synopsis

What happens in a tradition that links citizenship with soldiering when women become citizens? Citizen Soldiers and Manly Warriors provides an in-depth analysis of the theory and practice of the citizen-soldier in historical context. Using a postmodern feminist lens, Snyder reveals that within the citizen-soldier tradition, citizenship and masculinity are simultaneously constituted through engagement in civic and martial practices.

Review Quotes

Citizen-Soldiers and Manly Warriors addresses several audiences with connected thematic nodes. Political theorists concerned with democratic participation and citizenship, historians of the relationship between martial service and citizenship, scholars interested in the rise of the militia movements and their relationship to democratic rhetoric, and finally, those interested in the practices and meanings of women's inclusion in the military will all find points of interest here. The author does important work in describing the potential uses of social construction in terms of citizens as soldiers. Generally, this book contributes an important perspective to the ongoing conversation about new modes of envisioning soldiering and citizenship into the twenty-first century and Snyder's work to disclose and disrupt the gendered work of constituting citizen-soldiers is admirable.

Citizen-Soldiers and Manly Warriors does its best work in the rich descriptions of Machiavelli and Rousseau, as they represent an origin story of civic republicanism and liberalism carried forward to United States political ideals and practices. The author does important work in describing the potential uses of social construction in terms of citizens as soldiers. Generally, this book contributes an important perspective to the ongoing conversation about new modes of envisioning soldiering and citizenship into the twenty-first century and Snyder's work to disclose and disrupt the gendered work of constituting citizen-soldiers is admirable.

A clearly written and interesting exploration of the citizen-soldier tradition from a postmodern feminist perspective.

An excellent study. . . . Her exploration of the 'women in the military' issue is analytically the sharpest one around, and highly recommended to anyone in feminist theory, gender studies, or international relations.

Anyone who is interested in the status of gender in the military will find R. Claire Snyder's argument absolutely fascinating. Making splendid use of contemporary feminist scholarship, Snyder shows us why our best democratic aspirations will remain unfulfilled until we fundamentally rethink the role of women in the armed forces.

R. Claire Snyder has written an exciting book about an unconventional subject. Her study of citizen-soldiers offers new insights into the meaning of civic republicanism, the role of gender, and the character of a truly democratic order. The book deserves a wide audience and I have no doubt it will receive it.

Snyder deserves praise for taking up a subject at the beginning of her academic career likely to win her many more enemies than friends. She has produced a fascinating book that deserves to be taken seriously by feminist scholars, specialists in military theory and history, and by policymakers.

The book is quite readable and provides scholars with enough background to understand the concept of the Citizen Soldier and how it is interwoven from the past into the present time in the configuration of U.S. military policy and rituals. Snyder creates a convincing argument for the perfomance creation of gender. Her book methodically builds on the Citizen Soldier ideas of Machiavelli and Rousseau and shows how much of this civic republicanism of today is a product of Western thought in the past.

The media frenzy surrounding 'Tailhook, ' women in combat, and gays in the military often obscures the fact that issues of gender have been at the heart of a centuries old historical debate about the 'citizen-soldier.' In Citizen Soldiers and Manly Warriors, Claire Snyder does a superb job of recreating and critically assessing the civic republicanism debate as it illuminates current controversies surrounding women's role in the military. This is a work of political philosophy that speaks directly to practical policy, a work about gender and military service that speaks directly to the conceptualization of citizenship. It is thus of equal importance to scholars and to citizens.

About the Author

R. Claire Snyder is assistant professor in the Department of Public and International affairs at George Mason University.