Not a Soldier,Not a Slacker: Conscientious Objectors and Male Citizenship in the United States during the Second World War

This essay argues that the 1940 Selective Service Act introduced new tensions between pacifism and male citizenship in the United States. Even as the draft required tens of millions of American men to answer Uncle Sam's call and promoted a new norm of male military obligation, it also specified the acceptable grounds for conscientious objection and created bureaucratic mechanisms for distinguishing between sincere objectors and ‘slackers’. Using Selective Service and organisational records, letters, diaries, interviews and the media, I suggest that male citizenship has been defined not only by idealised and gendered duties, but also by the difficulties and exceptions involved in their practical realisation.