Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?

An eminent historian offers a sweeping look at Europe’s tumultuous twentieth century, showing how the rejection of violence after World War II transformed a continent In the last decade we’ve seen an ever-widening rift between the United States and Europe, most visibly over Iraq. But as James J. Sheehan reminds us in his timely book, it wasn’t always thus. How did America and Europe come to take such different paths? In Where Have All the Soldiers Gone? Stanford historian Sheehan charts what is perhaps the most radical shift in Europe’s history. For centuries, nations defined themselves by their willingness and ability to wage war. But after World War II, Europe began to redefine statehood, rejecting ballooning defense budgets in favor of material well-being, social stability, and economic growth. Sheehan reveals how and why this happened, and what it means for America as well as the rest of the world. Succinct yet broad in scope, Sheehan’s authoritative history provides much-needed context for understanding the fractured era in which we live.