Amy Rutenberg

In the broadest terms, my research focuses on the relationships among war, gender, militarization, and American society in the second half of the twentieth century. My first book, Rough Draft: Cold War Military Manpower Policy and the Origins of Vietnam-Era Draft Resistance (Cornell University Press, 2019), explores how the policy community’s assumptions about gender, race, class, and the Cold War led it to target working-class and minority men for the draft and middle-class, white men for deferments in the years leading up the Vietnam War. My work has appeared in Cold War History, The New York Times, and TheAtlantic.com.

I am currently working on two projects. The first is an oral history of draft and military counselors during the Vietnam-War era. The second is an exploration of the post-Vietnam War moment in American history. I am investigating the factors that helped activists end a war but that prevented them from creating a lasting peace. I want to delve into the complex interplay between militarization and demobilization during the 1970s.

I also co-coordinate the secondary social studies education program and am happy to answer questions from students considering the profession of teaching.