History Colloquium: The Police-Military Continuum: How World War II Transformed US Police
Stuart Schrader, Johns Hopkins University
Friday, February 14, 2020 | 02:00 pm
History Commons Room, Mesa Vista Hall 1104
About:
Join the UNM Department of History and the LAII for a workshop session with Stuart Schrader, Associate Director of the Program in Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship and Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University.
Schrader’s paper will discuss the transformations in U.S. policing attendant to World War II. First, the paper highlights an investigation of the war’s dramatic shift for civilian police employment, as thousands of cops entered the military. Then, it explores the efforts to solve post-WWII personnel deficits within police departments by turning veterans into cops. The relatively smooth transfer of police into military roles and soldiers into police roles suggests a practical and ideological continuum and connection between police and military developed in this period. Overall, as will be argued, the war and the overseas occupations immediately after the war reconfigured US empire and increased the centrality of policing to it. This paper contributes a new perspective on the longstanding debate about the “militarization of policing.” You can obtain a copy of the paper by contacting Dr. Luis Herrán Ávila at lherranavila@unm.edu.
There will also be a presentation and Q&A with Schrader on his book, Badges Without Borders, on February 13th at 4pm in the Frank Waters Room at Zimmerman Library. Commentary by Dr. David Correa, UNM American Studies, will follow.
Stuart Schrader is the author of Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing (University of California Press, 2019). Stuart’s research interests around a few domains: security, policing, and counterinsurgency; the entwinement of foreign and domestic policy; and urbanization. He has published articles in The Journal of Urban History, Humanity, Public Culture, The Baffler, Boston Review, and many other venues.
Notes:
This lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, visit laii.unm.edu or contact laiioutreach@unm.edu.
Sponsors:
UNM Department of History
