Michael A. Messner is Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California. He is the author of several books, including Some Men: Feminist Allies and the Movement to End Violence Against Women (Oxford University Press, 2015) and, most recently, Guys Like Me: Five wars, Five Veterans for Peace (2019). His honors include the Pursuit of Justice Award from the California Women's Law Center, the Feminist Mentoring Award from the Sociologists for Women in Society, and the Jessie Bernard Award, presented by the American Sociological Association in recognition of contributions to the understanding of women's lives.

• Prologue


• Chapter 1: Action at intersections: Wars, militarization, and veterans' peace movements


• INTERLUDE 1: "It was all men."


• Chapter 2: "I was in unconventional combat": Intersectional pathways through the military


• INTERLUDE 2: Guys being guys


• Chapter 3: "Rip off the band-aid": A new generation confronts the veterans' peace movement


• INTERLUDE 3: "We cannot stand in fear"


• Chapter 4: "Connecting the dots": From silos to intersectional coalitions


• INTERLUDE 4: "Say it, mean it, and do something about it."


• Chapter 5: "You've got to do something radical": Intersectional praxis in social movements


• Appendix I: Methodological Appendix: Centering Intersectional Standpoints


• List of References


• Notes


• Appendix

In Unconventional Combat, Michael A. Messner illuminates the current generational transformation of the US veterans' peace movement, from one grounded mostly in the experiences of older, White men of the Vietnam War era, to one increasingly driven by a young, diverse cohort of post-9/11 veterans. In particular, he focuses on six veterans of color--mostly women who identify as queer--to show how their experiences of sexual and gender harassment, sexual assault, racist and homophobic abuse during their military service shapes their efforts to transform the veterans' peace movement.