Consent, Dissent, and Patriotism.(Review)

Margaret Levi, Consent, Dissent, and Patriotism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Pp. 255. $59.95, hardcover; $19.95, paperback

Students of modern conscription are fortunate to have many interesting case studies to draw on as an aid in their work. Some of these, like Richard Challener's The French Theory of the Nation in Arms, tell the history of conscription in particular countries. Others narrow their focus to examine particularly important turning points in government policy, as R. J. Q. Adams and Philip P. Poirer did in their study, The Conscription Controversy in Great Britain, 1900-1918. This is not to say there is a surplus of materials on the subject and nothing interesting left to be said. On the contrary. We are distressingly short, for instance, of reliable social statistics that would permit us to know who within society was most liable to government draft, who escaped liability, who resisted the exertion of governmental authority, and who complied. Until now, we have also been deprived of an overarching comparative survey that analyzes what we have learned from the myriad particular studies and considers what theoretical …