The Cultural Politics of Veterans’ Narratives

Chapter one serves as the conceptual backbone of the book, sketching five core principles for a cultural politics of veterans’ narratives, richly illustrated through stories and examples drawn from a range of sources and contexts. The five core principles offer a framework for understanding what stories are and what they do, building on previous articulations of narrative in critical military studies and related fields. Chapter one also makes the case that citizens face a moral and political dilemma about how to work with and respond to veterans’ stories of war and military life. The chapter sets out ‘what is at stake’ in a cultural politics of veterans’ narratives, particularly for lessening the social ills of war and militarism and promoting the social values of peace and justice.