Instrument of War

An original history of music and its consequences in the ranks of the US military.
 
Since the Civil War, the United States military has used music for everything from recruitment and training to signaling and mourning. “Reveille” has roused soldiers in the morning and “Taps” has marked the end of a long day. Soldiers have sung while marching, listened to phonographs and armed forces radio, and filled the seats at large-scale USO shows. Whether the sounds came from brass instruments, weary and homesick singers, or a pair of heavily used earbuds, where there was war, there was music too.
 
Instrument of War is a first-of-its-kind study of music in the lives of American soldiers. Historian David Suisman traces how the US military used—and continues to use—music to train soldiers and regulate military life, and how soldiers themselves have turned to music to cope with the emotional and psychological traumas of war. Although musical practices have been part of war since time immemorial, the significance of the US military as a musical institution has rarely been recognized. Suisman also reveals a darker history of music, specifically how musical practices have enabled the waging of war. Instrument of War challenges assumptions that music is inherently a beneficent force in the world, demonstrating how deeply music has been entangled in large-scale state violence.
 
Whether it involves chanting “Sound off!” in basic training, turning on a radio, or listening to a playlist while out on patrol, the sound of music has long resonated in soldiers’ wartime experiences. Now we can finally hear it.