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Maybe someday
28
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
39/100Critics
17/100Scholars
Author:
Susan L. Carruthers
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Date:
January 6, 2022
Drawing on personal letters, oral histories and psychiatric reportsâas well as popular music and moviesâSusan L. Carruthers argues that the armed forces and civilian society have attempted to weaponize romantic love in pursuit of martial ends, from World War II to today.
What The Reviewers Say
The armed forces’ distrust of romantic relationships—and the apparent misogyny that underlies this view—ripples throughout Ms. Carruthers’s prose.
Susan Carruthers sets out to explore the long and surprisingly complicated story of the ‘Dear John’ break-up letter sent by American women to US troops serving overseas. But her account offers insights into a broader entanglement, involving the militarism that shores up modern nationhood; the emotional and sexual ties that sustain and can destroy men in the military; and the women on whom male soldiers have poured hatred as well as adoration.
... an eye-opening study of wartime romances and breakups.
