Grateful Nation: Student Veterans and the Rise of the Military-Friendly Campus

Global Insecurities

by Ellen Moore

In today's volunteer military many recruits enlist for the educational benefits, yet a significant number of veterans struggle in the classroom, and many drop out. The difficulties faced by student veterans have been attributed to various poor academic preparation, PTSD and other postwar ailments, and allegedly antimilitary sentiments on college campuses. In Grateful Nation Ellen Moore challenges these narratives by tracing the experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans at two California college campuses. Drawing on interviews with dozens of veterans, classroom observations, and assessments of the work of veteran support organizations, Moore finds that veterans' academic struggles result from their military training and combat experience, which complicate their ability to function in civilian schools. While there is little evidence of antimilitary bias on college campuses, Moore demonstrates the ways in which college programs that conflate support for veterans with support for the institutional military lead to suppression of campus debate about the wars, discourage antiwar activism, and encourage a growing militarization.

280 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2017

Reviews

[LaBookWoman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an important book! I want to see every parent, teacher, college professor and guidance counselor read it—the chapter on basic training is especially strong: well written, well-organized, powerful. Moore is careful, thoughtful, and thorough in looking honestly both at veterans and the need they have to process their war experiences in safety and integrity, and at college campuses, which struggle (as mine does) to appropriately honor and support veterans. Her thesis is that the "militarized common sense" that passes for support to vets actually normalizes some very unacceptable wars for empire that the US and its leaders unleash. And it's not remotely helpful to many vets! So often we don't actually listen to the veterans who were in those wars. I really appreciated the diverse voices of vets that are so prominent in this book, and the author's care in representing women in particular, who tell some bitter truths about being in the armed forces.

Most of all I was grateful that Moore gave us ways to get past the mindless celebrations, the "thank you for your service" mentality that totally silences vets themselves and also negates any real discussion about what they thought they were fighting for vs. what their governments were really up to, and why. This book is a very helpful tool in doing two things I think are critical in the Trump era--1. creating space for each vet's experience to be heard as a step towards healing and re-integration, --and 2. having open and free public debates about the US's war-making, which is our responsibility as citizens of this powerful country, especially on college campuses. This book deserves wide attention.

[Len Lira · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly informative book. This book should be read by administrators, faculty, and staff of all higher education institutions. It articulates how well meaning policies and efforts to both protect and valorize student veterans can have unintended consequences that further alienate veterans seeking a higher education to both advance their transition back into civilian lives and to understand the incredibly life altering experience they engaged in as military servants. By the same token, these policies and attitudes serve to silence the necessary contemplation and critique of the US wars and conflicts these veterans experienced on behalf of a grateful nation. It concludes that were the nation truly grateful for their service, then it would facilitated the needed deliberation among its citizenry in its halls of higher education to better understand that experience and work to prevent future citizens having to sacrifice to the same.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ellen Moore is a terrific speaker, but I found the text a little underwhelming. I wish she had better connected the ethnographic work into broader research and, perhaps, into the history of veteran education from (what I might guess) was a heyday post WWII to a nadir post Vietnam. The ethnography was rich, but at times disjointed.

[David Guerra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did not know this book existed until I needed it. Great insights to the life of a Veteran making the move to Student Veteran. Thanks for writing this book. Great resource for any Veteran.