Kier Elizabeth. War and Democracy: Labor and the Politics of Peace

Cornell University Press, 2021. — 243 p.In critiquing the mainstream view that total war advances democracy, War and Democracy reveals how politics during the war transforms societal actors who become crucial to postwar political settlements and the prospects for democratic reform. War and Democracy is a major work of scholarship. In writing about the important and unresolved question of whether war strengthens or weakens democracy, Elizabeth Kier deepens our understanding of a number of questions of social theory and of the history of democratization. This is qualitative social science at its best. War and Democracy highlights the importance of the varied types of power that work during and after wartime to shape societal interests and prospects for democratization. It is an ambitious and important work that will command attention in scholarly debate.