02 - Consumerism in the service of pleasure and fun during the Vietnam War. A conversation with Meredith Lair

In this episode, Iva Jelušić and Meredith Lair talk about the life of the US soldiers in army bases during the Vietnam War. The conversation first focuses on some of the findings from Lair’s book Armed with Abundance: Consumerism and Soldiering in the Vietnam War (2011), which examines the non-combat experiences of American soldiers in Vietnam. The second part of the conversation brings to the fore her current research, including soldier photography during the same war. Meredith Lair is an Associate Professor of History at George Mason University, where she directs the interdisciplinary studies graduate program, and is an expert on the Vietnam War. Iva Jelušić is a Post-Doctoral Researcher for the “War and Fun: Reconceptualizing Warfare and Its Experience” project at the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway.