Amy Rutenberg
Dept: | History |
Email: | arutenbe@iastate.edu |
Office: | 617 Ross 527 Farm House Ln. Ames IA 50011-1054 |
Phone: | 515-294-4634 |
Vita: | Amy Rutenberg CV |
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.