Homefront

Author Catherine Lutz discussed her book Homefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century, published by Beacon Press. Ms. Lutz focused on Fayetteville, North Carolina; home to Fort Bragg, where the U.S. Army’s 18th Airborne Corps is stationed. Ms. Lutz began her narrative with the founding of Fort Bragg in 1916, which led to the dismantling of Fayetteville’s farming community. According to Ms. Lutz, the civilians were dependent upon the military base for work, but the arrangement offered little additional economic advantage to the community. The book also chronicles the military training operations that use civilians as mock enemies and allies, racial violence in Fayetteville, and the role Fort Bragg played in supporting drug trade and prostitution during the Vietnam War. The author spent six years researching and writing about the effect that military bases have on the communities they occupy. close