John Kinder

author of "Paying with Their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran"

November 4, 2015

John M. Kinder is associate professor of history and American Studies at Oklahoma State University. He received his Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota in 2007, and he is the author of "Paying with Their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran," which was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2015. His research focuses on the relationship between war and culture in the United States and around the globe. He is currently finishing his second book, "A History of Zoos During World War II."

America has grappled with the questions posed by injured veterans since its founding, and with particular force since the early 20th century: What are the nation's obligations to those who fight in its name? And when does war's legacy of disability outweigh the nation's interests at home and abroad? In "Paying with Their Bodies," Kinder traces the complicated, intertwined histories of war and disability in modern America. Focusing in particular on the decades surrounding World War I, he argues that disabled veterans have long been at the center of two competing visions of American war: one that highlights the relative safety of U.S. military intervention overseas; the other indelibly associating American war with injury, mutilation and suffering. Kinder brings disabled veterans to the center of the American war story and shows that when we do so, the history of American war over the last century begins to look different. War can no longer be seen as a discrete experience, easily left behind; rather, its human legacies are felt for decades.

URL: https://library.okstate.edu/news/celebratingbooks/2016-honorees/john-kinder

Last Updated: 12 January 2022