Ronit Y. Stahl, Enlisting Faith: How the Military Chaplaincy Shaped Religion and State in Modern America, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017. Pp. x + 384. $41.00 hardcover (ISBN 9780674972155).

Abstract

to read the book against the caveats raised in the introductory chapters. For one, Freeman openly admits to being wary of “White people telling Black people’s stories” (xii). A degree of circumspection is especially warranted because the narrative that she paints of the Fultz family is based primarily on her interpretation of secondary sources. There is no firsthand account available from any of the Fultz quads, all of whom have since died. Further, Freeman acknowledges that the book “may appear to promote the idea that breast is best” (14). Indeed, there are parts of the text that either explicitly or implicitly advance this claim. For example, in discussing misleading formula marketing campaigns from the 1930s and 1940s, Freeman writes that such campaigns “belied the medical research that breast milk . . . is best” (60). At another point, she remarks that “[f]ormula is a highly processed product that is essentially junk food for infants” (9). Despite these kinds of comments, Freeman maintains that the book’s “advocacy and analysis come with no judgments” (14) and should not take away from the broader point that structural reforms are needed “to create genuine, universal choices about infant feeding” (14). As is made clear in Skimmed, such reforms necessarily implicate shifts in the legal, political, cultural, and social spheres. The scope of material covered in the book means that there is some repetition and overlap both between and among chapters. Nevertheless, the primary message is undoubtedly an important one, and the book will certainly be of interest to those who are concerned about historical issues relating to race, health, and food, and the ongoing legacies that continue to bend contemporary law and policy in profoundly unjust directions.