Content area
Full Text
Citizens More Than Soldiers: The Kentucky Militia and Society in the Early Republic. By Harry S. Laver. Studies in War, Society, and the Military. (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, c. 2007. Pp. [xii], 216. $45.00, ISBN 978-0-8032-2970-9.)
In this study of Kentucky's militia experience in the years between the American Revolution and the Civil War, Harry S. Laver contends that parttime militiamen in the Bluegrass State were not the stereotypical young louts who liked to drink too much, march around half out of step in colorful uniforms, and fire off their rusty weapons while seeking to impress onlookers at public muster sessions. Investigating the militia in three subject areas community, politics, and masculinity - Laver concludes that Kentucky's volunteer soldiers played a central part in the...