Meredith Lair
Associate Professor
Concentration Head, Interdisciplinary Studies
Concentration Head, War and the Military in Society
U.S. History: The Vietnam War, war and American society, collective memory, conflict tourism, post-1945 social and cultural history
Meredith Lair’s first book, Armed with Abundance: Consumerism and Soldiering in the Vietnam War, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2011. In it, she examines the mythos of the citizen-soldier in American history by discussing the non-combat experiences of American soldiers in Vietnam. Her research on this topic continues, especially the role that culture can play as an instrument of war. Her second project addresses conflict tourism in both Vietnam and the United States, in particular the ways museum professionals and civic groups in both countries shape the narrative of the Vietnam War to suit present political needs. She also developed content and wrote the exhibit script for the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation’s Vietnam Era Educational Center, the first permanent museum about the Vietnam War in the United States.
Her teaching interests include war and American society, post-1945 US social and cultural history, the Vietnam War, and historical methods. She also happily serves as one of the undergraduate academic advisors for History majors and as co-chair of Mason’s annual War on the Silver Screen Film Festival.
Current Research
The Vietnam Reader. Second Edition. Under contract, forthcoming in 2011.
Final Victory: Vietnam War Tourism in the US and Southeast Asia. Research and manuscript in progress.
Selected Publications
Armed with Abundance: Consumerism and Soldiering in the Vietnam War. University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
“Red Coat Theater: Negotiating Identity in Occupied Philadelphia, 1777-78,” in Pennsylvania’s Revolution, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010.
Courses Taught
HIST 120: Why We Fight
HIST 370: War and American Society
HIST 377: The Vietnam War
HIST 300: Introduction to Historical Method: War & Remembrance
HIST 499: Senior Seminar in History: War & Remembrance
HIST 615: Vietnam War
HIST 615: War and Remembrance
Dissertations Supervised
Kirklin Bateman, Project 100,000: New Standards Men and the Military in Vietnam. In progress.
Recent Presentations
“A Cause Lost and Won: Renegotiating Victory in the Memory of the Vietnam War,” Society for Military History Annual Meeting, 2010.
“Mr. Tien's Battle Scars: Authenticity as Commodity in American Vietnam War Tourism,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, 2009.
“Ice Cream in the Tropics, Dessert in the Desert: Refining War in Iraq and Vietnam,” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, 2008.
“Final Victory: Vietnam War Tourism and the Dialectics of American/Vietnamese Memory,” Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, 2008.