As I noted in the Friday Free-For-All thread yesterday, I sold my copy of For Want of a Gun: The Sherman Tank Scandal of WWII and picked up the following;

• Hershey, Lewis B. Selective Service in Peacetime: First Report of the Director of Selective Service 1940-1941. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1942.

• Hershey, Lewis B. Selective Service in Wartime: Second Report of the Director of Selective Service 1941-1942. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1943.

• Hershey, Lewis B. Selective Service as the Tide of War Turns: Third Report of the Director of Selective Service 1943-1944. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1945.

• Hershey, Lewis B. Selective Service and Victory: Fourth Report of the Director of Selective Service 1944-1945 With a Supplement for 1947-1948. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1948.

Due to a mail snafu, only two of the books have arrived so far, but they present some interesting data;

Number of Men Inducted into the United States Army by Months, 1943:

The United States Army began to suffer an allocative crisis in 1943. Simultaneously, the Department of Selective Service began to fall dangerously behind on its inductions. On October 1, 1943, the Department of Selective Service deleted the III-A classification (men with dependents, not engaged in work necessary to national defense). As a result, fathers, many older than their late 20s and less physically and mentally fit than were desired, began to be inducted at increasing rates. On December 5, 1943, President Roosevelt signed Public Law 197, which amended the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 to reflect the change; the bill was fought bitterly in Congress before being signed.

Notwithstanding the provisions of section 4 (b), under such rules and regulations as the President may prescribe, on the basis of the best inventory information available to him at the time of allocating calls, without affecting the usual regular and orderly flow of the Nation's manpower into the armed forces as required for service therein, and in accordance with the requisitions of the land and naval forces and with the other provisions of this Act, registrants shall, on a Nation-wide basis within the Nation and a State-wide basis within each State, be ordered to report to induction stations in such a manner that registrants, regardless of their occupations or the activities in which they may be engaged, who were married prior to December 8, 1941, who have maintained a bona fide family relationship with their families since that date and who have a child or children under eighteen years of age, will be inducted after the induction of other registrants not deferred, exempted, relieved from liability, or postponed from induction under this Act or the rules and regulations prescribed thereunder who are available for induction and are acceptable to the land and naval forces. The term 'child' as used in this section means a legitimate child born prior to September 15, 1942, a stepchild, adopted child, foster child, or a person who is in the relationship of child to the registrant, who became such prior to December 8, 1941, who is less than eighteen years of age, or who by reason of mental or physical defects is incapable of self-support, who is unmarried, and with whom the registrant has maintained a bona fide family relationship in their home since December 7, 1941, or since the date of birth if such date of birth is later than December 7, 1941.

By December 1943, the second-most common age group drafted other than those men aged 18 and 19 were those who were aged 24 to 33, with 28 and 29 being the most common ages in that range. This general trend continued until at least March 1944. By the summer, this pool of older men had been exhausted, and the induction effort shifted to 18 year olds, who made up half of Army recruits by June 1944.

A couple questions:

• What do you think of Robert Darnton's work? I had a lecture on "The Great Cat Massacre in Saint-Séverin's Street", part of The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History and my professor explained that there was an argument over Darnton's use of sources (he would be interpreting them beyond their scope), particularly with Roger Chartier.

• I have to write a paper on the Sykes-Picot agreement. I went through the books on the sidebar but none of those I saw seemed to focus on the agreement and its context. Any recommendations for a book or an article?

Ive been reading SPQR which is a pretty recent book about the early to middle history of rome, starts with the romulus and remus story and ends in 211ad. Im loving it so far, are there any books good that encompass the history of the later half of the empire? (3rd century crisis or the tetrarchy specific books would be neat too) or some books about some other great empires of the time like ptolemaic egypt or the seleucids. Thanks :)

Hi,

I have been reading about the period before the first crusade. During the times before there had been Muslim conquests. Were christians throughout Europe actually aware of these happening when they were in different regions? And did it change their opinion on the outside world? Thank you.