Homefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century

by Catherine A. Lutz

Book Overview

A look at Fayetteville, North Carolina, home to Fort Bragg, that poses the question, 'Are we all military dependents?' Fayetteville has earned the nicknames of Fatalville and Fayettenam. Unusual and not-sounusual features of the town include gross income inequalities, an extraordinarily high incidence of venereal disease, miles and miles of strip malls, and a history of racial violence. Through interviews with residents and historical research, Catherine...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807055093
• ISBN13: 9780807055090
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Who is a Soldier, and What is War?

Residents of Fayetteville, North Carolina awoke one morning in April of 1954 to find the front page of their local paper carrying news of a nuclear attack downtown; they were informed that sixty-four thousand soldiers were being deployed to amend the situation, aided by six tons of maps and forty-six chaplains. The attack, of course, was a fiction, but the soldiers and their simulated nuclear reaction mission (Exercise Flash Burn) were very real. Catherine Lutz demonstrates in Homefront: A Military City that the life of Fayetteville cannot disentangle itself from the life of Fort Bragg, the nation's largest military base. This study by the renowned anthropologist from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is both as specific as a city history and as broad as a national story. Though Lutz uses Fayetteville as a zooming-in point, her argument-that the dichotomies of military and civilian, war-time and peace-time, are collapsing-is applicable to the country as a whole. Fayetteville, a city of one hundred thousand semi-affectionately known as "Fayettenam," was chosen as the centerpiece for this project because of its long and bittersweet relationship with Fort Bragg. Lutz traces this history from 1918 (when the city's founding fathers first lured the lucrative industry to the collective pocketbook of the townsfolk), through the patriotism and turmoil of the World Wars and the bitter clashes of the Vietnam War, to the present-day Hot Peace. Relations between the base and the city are both interdependent and strained so that, upon the close inspection Lutz conducts, it becomes unclear where the line between the two is drawn, if indeed it can be drawn at all. Lutz describes Fayetteville's economy as engineered to serve the needs of soldiers on paydays. While other North Carolina cities chose technology industries as their major source of income, Fayetteville cast its lot with the base and the retail sales it would create. This plan has had the two-fold effect of making the few who own the businesses quite rich and the many who work in them, merely touching the money as it passes from soldier to civilian businessman, rather poor. The question of who is serving whom (soldiers training to protect the lives of civilians while civilians tend to soldiers' needs) becomes blurred, as does the question of whom is actually receiving the government paychecks. Further blurring the dichotomy between military and civilian are the many civilians whose presence in Fayetteville is attributable to the military-for instance, the refugees who have come from all over the world, and the "war brides" who moved to Fayetteville with their soldier husbands and settled down. Lutz posits that the draft further lessened the gap between military and civilian by presenting a difficulty in readily distinguishing between the two; the idea that soldiers were lower-class, uneducated, and crass was prominent prior to the World Wars, but suddenly college boys from

Removing the Wool from our Eyes

This is an eye-opening, honest, and thoughtful examination of the role the military plays in our society. It is obvious that Lutz has thoroughly and carefully studied Fayetteville, NC, and she has delivered a powerfully written document of the effects an army base has had on the community. What makes this a brilliant work is that it invites the reader to consider the many arenas of our culture which have been influenced, even created, by the military complex we have embraced as our defense. Homefront is an extremely important book.

See the big picture of war

This book, although a specific case study of one town, is an excellent way to learn or be reminded of the complex relationship between war and our society. While many persist in seeing military strength and military action in black and white terms, a writer like Lutz reminds us that the apparatus of war right here in our towns and cities affects lives in complicated and enduring ways, day in and day out, whether or not it is a time of war. It always seems easier to criticize the mistakes of the past. Lutz's book makes us question the complications of a present that many of our leaders would like us to keep seeing in simple terms.

a fresh look at the military and local communities

This is an excellent description of the complex relationship between a community and a military base that abuts it.Most readers will be surprised to learn some of the negative consequences.Our preconceived notion that a military base is a boon to a local community is seriously challenged.Along with the analysis of the town-base relationship, there is agood critique of our defense expenditures.The writing is crisp and the statements are well documented.The book will appeal to readers who are interested in a serious study of the effect of a military base on the surrounding area.

Great book! Well researched and timely.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading "HomeFront" by Catherine Lutz. I moved to Fayetteville many years ago. I witnessed many of the things that Mrs. Lutz discusses in her book. I often wondered why Fayetteville developed as it did. Ms. Lutz does a great job of explaining the complex economic, racial and political dynamics that created Fayetteville, NC. As Ms. Lutz points out, the military has had a massive impact on America over the last 50 years. Perhaps the best example of the cost of the military in human and economic terms is Fayetteville, NC. I did take exception with some of her observations. I'm not sure Ft. Bragg is the largest military installation. I believe that distinction belongs to Ft. Hood. Additionally, it seemed that Ms. Lutz was at times overly harse about the military presence in Fayetteville. The information on the use of training areas also seemed inaccurate. The chapter that discusses the economic impact of the military on Fayetteville was especially well done. Her analysis of the economic impact was even handed and well-researched. Although the book is about Fayetteville, NC, her observations are really about America and the impact of the military over the last century. I'm amazed it's taken so long for some one to provide a unique and well-researched perspective on America's quintessential military town and how the military has changed America. The notes section of Homefront alone is worth reading. Ms. Lutz provides outstanding background information which attest to the great research that went into writing Homefront. As America fights another war, Ms. Lutz's book is extremely well timed.