Book Review

Canada and the United States

In 1918, civic boosters from Fayetteville, North Carolina, set about the task of luring some sort of military base to the region, offering various incentives, including what would be described in official army literature as "acres of desolate sandhills and pine trees" (p. 25). Having persuaded Washington to locate a training ground in the use of artillery and other heavy weapons in their area, those same civic boosters—and those that would come after them—faced the need to convince civilians of its value. Despite the myth that the land the Army would acquire for Fort Bragg (named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg) was virtually empty, much of it was cultivated, often by people of African and Native American descent, and they were not easily displaced. Other Fayetteville residents opposed the project for fear of the dangers that large numbers of young men might pose to the virtue of the young women in the community. As Catherine Lutz makes clear, these objections and others that developed over the years were regularly ignored in favor of the arguments advanced to support Fort Bragg, especially those based on the assumed economic advantages it would bring to the Fayetteville region.

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Cleverly interweaving the story of Fayetteville during the twentieth century with the story of the growing militarization of American culture, Lutz uses the Fayetteville case to critique the social effect of that militarization. As she makes clear, the actual economic cost to those living on the outskirts of Fort Bragg, as well as the social cost, is apparent—if you take the time to look for it. Lutz shows how, over time, those economic and social costs have changed, as has the role of the military in American life.

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