Follow us on Twitter.
“The Remains of War deserves an important place on the Vietnam War shelf of any library. It is probably the definitive empirical work on the accounting of America’s Vietnam POWs and MIAs. It also offers some provocative insights on the role of this issue in our culture and on the continued irresolution about what has been the great agony of the Baby Boom generation: the Vietnam War.” — Timothy J. Lomperis, Perspectives on Politics
“The Remains of War is a valuable addition to the growing literature on the American accounting effort. Its conclusions will influence related scholarship for the foreseeable future.” — Bradley Lynn Coleman, Journal of Military History
“Hawley’s astringent analysis of a strange collective obsession is not only fascinating in its own terms but also clarifies American disorders that continue to disturb the body politic today.” — Joan Cocks, Political Theory
“Hawley's study is provocative, yet raises important concerns. . . . To show the complexity and difficulty of resolving these issues, Hawley presents recent repatriation cases and legislative attempts. His study does much to explain how impressions-whether or not well grounded in fact-when mixed with emotion, cultural practices and power politics, can become hardened policy.” — Deborah Kidwell, Vietnam
Hawley’s use of bodies to bring meaning to the Vietnam War is interesting and thorough. . . . The Remains of War . . . succeeds in forcing the reader to think hard about the Vietnam War and its impact on our society.” — Leonard Wong, Armed Forces and Society
“The Remains of War deserves an important place on the Vietnam War shelf of any library. It is probably the definitive empirical work on the accounting of America’s Vietnam POWs and MIAs. It also offers some provocative insights on the role of this issue in our culture and on the continued irresolution about what has been the great agony of the Baby Boom generation: the Vietnam War.” —Timothy J. Lomperis, Perspectives on Politics
“The Remains of War is a valuable addition to the growing literature on the American accounting effort. Its conclusions will influence related scholarship for the foreseeable future.” —Bradley Lynn Coleman, Journal of Military History
“Hawley’s astringent analysis of a strange collective obsession is not only fascinating in its own terms but also clarifies American disorders that continue to disturb the body politic today.” —Joan Cocks, Political Theory
“Hawley's study is provocative, yet raises important concerns. . . . To show the complexity and difficulty of resolving these issues, Hawley presents recent repatriation cases and legislative attempts. His study does much to explain how impressions-whether or not well grounded in fact-when mixed with emotion, cultural practices and power politics, can become hardened policy.” —Deborah Kidwell, Vietnam
Hawley’s use of bodies to bring meaning to the Vietnam War is interesting and thorough. . . . The Remains of War . . . succeeds in forcing the reader to think hard about the Vietnam War and its impact on our society.” —Leonard Wong, Armed Forces and Society
“As someone who has read numerous books on the Vietnam War, I found much new and helpful information in The Remains of War. What is most helpful, however, is not simply the information Thomas M. Hawley presents but his theoretical framework for thinking through the mechanisms by which the very idea of an ‘unaccounted-for body’ comes into being. Hawley makes a first-rate argument that will reshape the ways in which we talk about bodies in the Vietnam War.” — Susan Jeffords, author of, The Remasculinization of America: Gender and the Vietnam War
“Thomas M. Hawley combines theoretical dexterity and voluminous research in a first-rate book on America’s tortured Vietnam legacy. By cataloguing the manifold practices that keep the bodies of the absent dead alive, he enables us to understand the nation’s obsession with a political and cultural war it continually invents and reinvents at home and abroad.” — Steven Johnston, author of, Encountering Tragedy: Rousseau and the Project of Democratic Order
If you are requesting permission to photocopy material for classroom use, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at copyright.com;
If the Copyright Clearance Center cannot grant permission, you may request permission from our Copyrights & Permissions Manager (use Contact Information listed below).
If you are requesting permission to reprint DUP material (journal or book selection) in another book or in any other format, contact our Copyrights & Permissions Manager (use Contact Information listed below).
Many images/art used in material copyrighted by Duke University Press are controlled, not by the Press, but by the owner of the image. Please check the credit line adjacent to the illustration, as well as the front and back matter of the book for a list of credits. You must obtain permission directly from the owner of the image. Occasionally, Duke University Press controls the rights to maps or other drawings. Please direct permission requests for these images to permissions@dukeupress.edu.
For book covers to accompany reviews, please contact the publicity department.
If you're interested in a Duke University Press book for subsidiary rights/translations, please contact permissions@dukeupress.edu. Include the book title/author, rights sought, and estimated print run.
Instructions for requesting an electronic text on behalf of a student with disabilities are available here.
Hawley combines the theoretical insights of Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, and Emmanuel Levinas with detailed research into the history of the movement to recover the remains of soldiers missing in Vietnam. He examines the practices that constitute the Defense Department’s accounting protocol: the archival research, archaeological excavation, and forensic identification of recovered remains. He considers the role of the American public and the families of missing soldiers in demanding the release of pows and encouraging the recovery of the missing; the place of the body of the Vietnam veteran within the war’s legacy; and the ways that memorials link individual bodies to the body politic. Highlighting the contradictions inherent in the recovery effort, Hawley reflects on the ethical implications of the massive endeavor of the American government and many officials in Vietnam to account for the remains of American soldiers.
Thomas M. Hawley is Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington.
Sign up for Subject Matters email updates to receive discounts, new book announcements, and more.