Tuesday, November 7, 1:00-2:30pm, Sarratt 216/220.

At first glance, the history of American warfare can often appear strangely devoid of flesh and blood. Prior to the 1960s, Hollywood shied away from graphic war wounds, and military propaganda continues to downplay war’s relentless consumption of life and limb. According to Professor John M. Kinder, however, injured bodies deserve to be moved from the margins to the center of the American war story. In this talk, Kinder offers a lightning tour of American military history through the bodies and minds of injured survivors. What emerges is a portrait of a nation that has long struggled to come to terms with the inevitable human cost of military conflict.

John M. Kinder is Associate Professor of History and American Studies at Oklahoma State University. He is the author of Paying with Their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran (University of Chicago Press, 2015). He is currently completing a book on the history of zoos during World War II.

Sponsored by the Center for Medicine, Health, & Society

https://www.vanderbilt.edu/mhs/2017/10/nov-7-mhs-hot-topics-john-kinder-never-in-this-world-a-victim-like-me-what-disabled-veterans-can-teach-us-about-the-history-and-future-of-american-war/

On Tuesday, October 17, 2017, I’ll be giving a talk called “A History of War in Five Bodies” at the New York Academy of Medicine.

https://nyam.org/events/event/history-american-war-five-bodies/

At first glance, the history of American warfare can often appear strangely devoid of flesh and blood. Prior to the 1960s, Hollywood shied away from graphic war wounds, and military propaganda continues to downplay war’s relentless consumption of life and limb. According to Professor John M. Kinder, however, injured bodies deserve to be moved from the margins to the center of the American war story. In this talk, Kinder explores the history of American war through the bodies of five disabled veterans. What emerges is a portrait of nation struggling (and often failing) to mitigate the human cost of military conflict.

About the Speaker

John M. Kinder is Associate Professor of History and American Studies at Oklahoma State University. He is the author of Paying with Their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran (University of Chicago Press, 2015). He is currently completing a book on the history of zoos during World War II.

Source: Wound Ballistics: The Science of Injury and the Mystery of Exploding Bullets

I will be delivering the Mullins Distinguished Lecture at Virginia Tech University at 4:00 pm on February 19, 2016. The location is Surge 118B. All are welcome.

I will be talking about my book, Paying with Their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran, on Thursday, February 11, at 5:30 pm. The location is Bartlett 109 on the Stillwater Campus of Oklahoma State University.

I was recently interviewed by Professor Bob Wintermute (Queens College – CUNY) for the New Books in Military History podcast. Click the link to access and listen to the interview.

John Kinder

View on Amazon

John Kinder brings to life the challenges and problems faced by the disabled veteran in American history from the Civil War to the current day in his evocative book, Paying with Their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran (University of Chicago Press, 2015). Considered by many reviewers to be one of the most important books in recent years on the human cost of war, Paying with Their Bodies blends lively anecdotal accounts of individual veterans with the complex questions of their imagined and real place in society before, during, and after their time served. Not surprisingly the answers are at times even more disheartening as Kinder uncovers a pattern of promises made and unfulfilled, in which the only consistencies across time are episodes of exploitation for political and personal gain by others and the eventual neglect as the public memory of their sacrifice fades.

The Orange County (North Carolina) Human Relations Commission has chosen to include Paying with Their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran as part of its March 2016 “Community Reads” Program.

Reprinted below is the news release from the Orange County website.

ORANGE COUNTY INVITES PUBLIC TO TAKE PART IN COMMUNITY READ & DISCUSSION

ORANGE COUNTY, NC (August 27, 2015)—The Orange County Human Relations Commission (HRC) invites residents and reading clubs  to participate in the Community Read discussion taking place in March, 2016 (date TBD).

In commemoration of the 25^th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the HRC wants to bring awareness of disability rights, accomplishments and continuing barriers.

The following books shed light on the topic, and the discussion in March is designed to be engaging and enriching.  The community is encouraged to read one or all three books– feel free to invite others to participate in the discussion.

The discussion forum will be moderated by Kim Lan Grout of The Redefining Disabled Project.

Click the links below for details and videos about each selection:

• Beauty is a Verb, a book of poetry by persons with disabilities.  Edited by Sheila Black, Jennifer Bartlett and Michael Northen (Eds., 2011).
•  Far From the Tree, by Andrew Solomon (2013).  This book covers a broad scope of daily life realities of families dealing with a variety of challenges.

• Paying with their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran, by John M. Kinder (2015). The author traces the complicated histories of war and disability in America.

I was thrilled (and honored) to read a review of my book by the fearless journalist Ann Jones — author of War is Not Over When It’s Over and They Were Soldiers — in The Intercept. You can check out the article here.