This edited volume provides a comprehensive and critical review of the literature on specific topics related to military service and its life course consequences. It demonstrates how the military, like higher educational and penal institutions, is a critical social institution that can transform lives. Chapters focus on topics ranging from military service among specific populations such as racial/ethnic minorities, women, and gays and lesbians; the implications of military service for the transition to adulthood, socioeconomic attainment, and health; the effects of military service on the lives of service members' families; and how experiences of military service vary across different cohorts. The book concludes with an exploration of the policy implications of the issues raised in the previous chapters, and sets the agenda for the next generation of research.

Janet M. Wilmoth and Andrew S. London are Professors of Sociology at the Aging Studies Institute, Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, Syracuse University.

Preface Janet M. Wilmoth and Andrew S. London. Foreword Glen H. Elder, Jr. 1. Life-Course Perspectives on Military Service: An Introduction Janet M. Wilmoth and Andrew S. London 2. The Military as a Transforming Social Agent: Integration into or Isolation from Normal Adult Roles? Ryan Kelty and David R. Segal 3. Women's Lives in Wartime: The American Civil War and World War II D'Ann Campbell 4. Racial-Ethnicity and Immigration Status in the U.S. Military Amy C. Lutz 5. Military Service and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Lives Maria T. Brown 6. Military Service as a Pathway to Early Socioeconomic Achievement for Disadvantaged Groups Pamela R. Bennett and Katrina Bell McDonald 7. Labor Market Outcomes Among Veterans and Military Spouses Meredith Kleykamp 8. "The Best Years of Our Lives": Military Service and Family Relationships - A Life-Course Perspective Daniel Burland and Jennifer Hickes Lundquist 9. Military Employment and Spatial Mobility Across the Life Course Amy Kate Bailey 10. A Matter of Life and Death: Military Service and Health Alair MacLean 11. Military Service, Social Policy, and Later-Life Financial and Health Security Debra Street and Jessica Hoffman 12. The United States Military Services' Sponsorship of Life-Course Research: Past, Present, and Future Paul Gade and Brandis Ruise 13. Methodological Problems in Determining the Consequences of Military Service Douglas A. Wolf, Coady Wing and Leonard M. Lopoo 14. Setting an Agenda for Future Research on Military Service and the Life Course Jay D. Teachman