Product Description

The Kinder, Gentler Military is a devastating critique of how and why the military-the most tradition-bound, masculine institution in the United States--spent the 1990s in a tortured attempt to reform its time--proven warrior culture into a new, politically correct value system, which is decimating morale in our armed forces.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1082287 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 285 pages

From Amazon.com
When the Marines dropped their famous slogan, "We're looking for a few good men," and replaced it with "The few, the proud, the Marines," they weren't just eliminating a worn-out ad campaign--they were pursuing a controversial social agenda. "The nineties were a decade in which the brass handed over their soldiers to social planners in love with an unworkable (and in many senses undesirable) vision of a politically correct utopia, one in which men and women toil side by side, equally good at the same tasks, interchangeable, and, of course, utterly undistracted by sexual interest," writes journalist Stephanie Gutmann. The Kinder, Gentler Military--an expanded version of a cover story Gutmann wrote for The New Republic--is a devastating critique of the military's sex-integration efforts. She reports of women "allowed to come into basic training at dramatically lower fitness levels and then to climb lower walls, throw shorter distances, and carry lighter packs when they got there." This has led to problems in the field: during the Gulf War, says Gutmann, "men in many units took over tearing down tents or loading boxes because most of the women simply couldn't or wouldn't do these chores as fast." Liberals will accuse Gutmann of hostility to feminism, but her strong blend of reporting and analysis overcomes that charge by describing the frustrations of women who want to contribute to the military's old-fashioned warrior culture, not its newfangled Peace Corps mentality. The Pentagon doesn't want you to read The Kinder, Gentler Military; that's all the more reason why you should. --John J. Miller

Francis Fukuyama, author The End of History and the Last Man, Commentary, February 2000
Stephanie Gutmann's new book, The Kinder, Gentler Military, debunks the received wisdom [that resistance to raising the proportion of women in the military is inherently sexist] through first-rate reporting on the reality of the contemporary military. There is, as it turns out, a simple reason why academic studies and official commissions cannot get at the truth in this area: in the wake of the 1991 Tailhook scandal, which ended the careers of many navy officers who were found to have been insufficiently vigilant in rooting out sexual harassment, the military has become one of the most politically correct of all American institutions.

The Detroit News, March 29, 2000
...tough-minded writer...ruthlessly dissects American military policy...in her outstanding new book, The Kinder, Gentler Military....

Customer Reviews

Unfortunately it is all true (mostly)
I am currently serving in the Army and my brother is in the Navy and between my own experience and the stories he relates to me I can say that Ms. Gutmann has done an incredible job covering the ongoing degradation of our armed forces by social engineers. It was somewhat depressing reading this book since, for years, I have thought that if people really knew what was happening to the military it wouldn't continue in its downward spiral. I come to find out that people are aware and still nothing is being done about it.
I would give this book five stars but I felt that Ms. Gutmann did not make enough of an effort to give the people who support the "kinder, gentler" transformation a chance to defend their innovations. It was a bit onesided as some other readers point out and there were a few times that the author was a little off base in her criticisms.
Though I have almost given up, I hope that the information in this book will someday reach the ears of someone with the ability to do something about the current state of affairs. Else, when we find ourselves up against a well supplied, well fed, technologically advanced enemy, we will learn too late that war is an arena from which social planners should be banned.

The Kinder, Gentler Military
In 1992, during my freshman year of high school, I was able to attend a mini-boot camp (approx. 1 week) at RTC Great Lakes because I was in Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC). I had 4 RDCs, 2 men and 2 women. As a woman in Naval boot camp, I didn't feel that I wasn't treated any differently than a male recruit would be treated. (Bare in mind that this was 3 years before women were integrated with the men in basic training in all of the branches EXCEPT the Marine Corps). I felt that the physical aspects of training were just as tough as what the males were doing alongside us females. This is how I saw it and it really has changed a lot since then. I can say that with much confidence.

Currently, I work on NTC Great Lakes so I can exactly where Gutmann is coming from with the information in this book. She's very much on target in that PC underminds morale in our armed forces thereby affecting our ability to function as we should as a military component.

Gutmann tells it like it really is. She reviews many of the reforms that the military has gone through in the 90s regarding women in the service and how they've handled policies under those reforms. Her bottom line is those reforms and how they are handled aren't doing the military any good. To quote Gutmann, "What we have to take back are the "innovations" of the nineties; what we have to reform is the nineties mind-set driving the integration of women and most of the policies it produced."

From Gutmann's perspective the ONLY branch of services that is doing anything right is the Marine Corps. To quote Gutmann, again, "There have not been many mentions of the Marines in this book; that's because they are generally doing all right," adding, "They are the service that has stood its ground best through the politically correct nineties." She hits a nail on the head with this. One of my friends, a former Marine of 8 years, would most certainly agree with her.

I really do recommend Gutmann's book and think that the civilian world could benefit from reading this book, as they will be able to clearly see how the "New Military" has lost much affectiveness from its former self (the "Old Military").

The Kinder, Gentler Military: Can America's Gender-Neutral
This is an excellent book. I found the chapters baffling and infuriating as they detailed my experience in the US Army, that ended nearly five years ago, from basic training to ETS. Serving in an Infantry unit, I could only glean experiences of these nuanced gender issues through contact with acquaintances in support units, or in the civilian community college I attended with other students, mostly female enlisted soldiers.

I read with fervor and great anticipation of what Ms. Gutmann's conclusions would be at the end of the book. I was not disappointed!

No matter what your personal stance on these issues, or your status as active or inactive military or even as a civilian, this is a valuable resource to have in reach, and acts as a potential conversational blasting cap!