Coming Home: A History of War Veterans
Rambo, Elvis Presley, and former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders have one important thing in common: military service. So who are America’s veterans? Soldiers travel far away to risk their lives, but how easy is returning home?
Death and the Civil War
Nineteenth Century Guy Ed Ayers speaks with historian Drew Gilpin Faust about how the Civil War altered Americans’ attitudes about death.
Web Extra: Extended Interview with Drew Gilpin Faust
The Civil War killed more soldiers than all other wars from the Revolution to Korea combined. In her 2008 book, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, Drew Gilpin Faust writes about the impacts of these unprecedented levels of death on 19th century Americans. A shorter version of this interview, conducted by [...]
Controversial Wars
Critics of the war in Iraq compare it – rightly or wrongly – to Vietnam. But there’s no disputing that like Vietnam, this war has split the nation down the middle. It’s enough to make one yearn for earlier times, when the nation united against a common enemy. Or did it? This hour of BackStory [...]
