Conscription, Conscientious Objection, and Draft Resistance in American History

Download or read book Conscription, Conscientious Objection, and Draft Resistance in American History written by Jerry Elmer and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-09-25 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conscription, Conscientious Objection, and Draft Resistance in American History is the definitive history of conscription in America. It is the first book ever to consider the entire temporal sweep of conscription from pre-Revolutionary War colonial militia drafts through the end of the Vietnam era. Each chapter contains an examination of that era’s draft law, the actual workings of the conscription machinery, and relevant court decisions that shaped the draft in practice. In addition, the book describes the popular opposition to conscription: organized and unorganized, violent and nonviolent, public and clandestine, legal and illegal. Using sources never before utilized by historians, including government documents obtained in Freedom of Information Act requests, the book demonstrates how anti-conscription sentiment has been far deeper than is popularly appreciated.