DSAB 246 - War, Veterans, and Disability (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None
For centuries, war has disabled both soldiers and civilizations who survived its ravages. Recently, however, significant advances in battlefield medicine have moved beyond M*A*S*H to the near-miraculous, and severely wounded soldiers, who in earlier conflicts would have died swiftly in foreign lands, have returned home to uncertain and often unwelcoming futures. This course will address two major issues. First, it will trace the history of disabled veterans and their re-entry into society, briefly considering the ancient world and then taking up the American experience with the Civil War and continuing to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; in doing so, we will explore Federal veterans policy, including benefits, rehabilitation, prosthetics and politics. Second, we will consider the philosophical question of whether war itself is a sign of a disabled or unbalanced society. Course materials will include fiction, drama, film, and scholarly secondary works.