Doctoral Dissertation Research: To Father or to Fight? Mass Conscription and the Politics of Masculine Citizenship, France, 1913-1939, and the United States, 1917-1944.

作为现代国家征召的公民士兵的义务是男性公民最重要的义务之一，尤其是在共和公民士兵传统产生的法国和美国。然而，从20世纪头几十年开始，法国和美国政府也支持男性公民作为“养家糊口”的一家之主。有时，这与公民士兵的传统相冲突，因为征召父亲违背了作为父亲支持家庭的义务。在两次世界大战之间，这种冲突在法国和美国达到了顶峰，在整个二战期间，美国颁布了立法，至今仍影响着当代政策。运用比较历史的方法，我问为什么法国拒绝免除父亲服兵役，而美国选择推迟父亲服兵役。我认为，关于父亲身份的性别意识形态影响了这些结果。参考华盛顿特区和法国巴黎的档案，我将研究美国国会和法国议会的辩论和委员会的记录，军事领导人和人力委员会的报告，行政部门的报告，如陆军部的报告，日报，社会运动期刊和国家立法。通过强调父亲是如何被支持的，以至于它甚至挑战了公民-士兵的理想，本论文推进了性别、公民和军事社会学领域的知识。更广泛的影响：女性加入军队引发了许多关于照顾家庭和作为士兵为国家服务之间冲突的问题。然而，这个项目揭示了这样的困境并不是女性士兵所独有的，而是在20世纪上半叶对男性士兵进行辩论和裁决的历史先例。此外，美国越来越强调通过国家政策支持父亲的重要性。由于立法草案在很大程度上仍然以两次世界大战期间的征兵规则为基础，因此了解过去关于起草父亲的立法如何影响当代的草案，同时了解在法国等另一个国家如何以不同的方式裁决，是有益的。

The obligation to act as conscripted citizen-soldiers for the modern state is one of the most important duties required of male citizens, especially in France and the United States where a republican citizen-soldier tradition emerged. Yet from the first decades of the twentieth century, male citizens have also been supported by the French and American states as "breadwinning" heads of families. At times this has conflicted with the citizen-soldier tradition, since conscripting fathers has contradicted the duty to act as fathers supporting families. This conflict reached its apex in France and the US between the World Wars, and throughout WWII in the US, when legislation was enacted that still informs contemporary policy. Using a comparative-historical methodology, I ask why the French rejected exempting fathers from military service, whereas the US chose to defer fathers from the draft. I argue that gendered ideologies regarding fatherhood affected these outcomes. Consulting archives around Washington DC, and Paris, France, I will examine transcripts of debates and commissions in the US Congress and French Parliament, reports by military leaders and manpower commissions, executive branch reports such as that of the War Department, daily newspapers, journals of social movements, and national legislation enacted. By emphasizing how fatherhood has been supported such that it has even challenged the citizen-soldier ideal, this dissertation advances knowledge in the fields of gender, citizenship, and military sociology. BroaderImpacts: The integration of women into the military raises many questions regarding the conflict between caring for families and serving the state as soldiers. However, this project reveals that such a dilemma is not unique to women soldiers, but has an historical precedent regarding male soldiers that was both debated and adjudicated in the first half of the twentieth century. Additionally, the import of supporting fatherhood through state policy is being increasingly emphasized in the US. Since draft legislation is still largely based upon the conscription rules of the interwar era, it is informative to understand how past legislation regarding drafting fathers would inform a contemporary draft, and at the same time, how it was differently adjudicated in another country such as France.