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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 December 2009
In general I might agree with you: women should not contemplate war,
should not weigh tactics impartially,
or evade the word enemy, or view both sides and denounce nothing.
Women should march for peace, or hand out white feathers to inspire bravery…
Instead of this, I tell
what I hope will pass as truth.
A blunt thing, not lovely.
Margaret Atwood, “The Loneliness of the Military Historian” (1995: 49–50)
A “blunt thing, not lovely” is an appropriate description for truth, or what passes for truth, in the social sciences. Stilted language and cumbersome methods contribute to its coarse features. More importantly, the homeliness of social scientific truth results from disinterestedly asking questions that lack clear answers. The beauty of science is its logic and parsimony. The beauty of literature is its expressiveness and involvement. Social science is generally messy and aloof. Yet it, and we its practitioners, continue to investigate issues about which people care deeply and act passionately.
One such set of issues is war and military service in democracies. Why do citizens sometimes enthusiastically give their behavioral consent to their governments and sometimes refuse it? Why at some times and in some places is there widespread protest or draft evasion and at other times and places considerable patriotism and volunteering? Why are some groups likely to support a particular war and others not? And how can a people consider a government democratic when it makes such harsh compulsory extractions of its citizens in money and life?
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