EBOOK War Time:An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences

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 "e;an age without surrender        ceremonies,"e; as the Administration announced an "e;end to conflict in Iraq,"e; 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,        "e;wartime"e; 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.Visit http://wartimebook.blogspot.com/ to learn        more.