Review: War & Homecoming: Veteran Identity and the Post-9/11 Generation, by Travis L. Martin. Urbana: University Press of Kentucky, 2022. ISBN-13 978-0813195643

This review examined Travis Martin’s (2022) War & Homecoming: Veteran Identity and the Post-9/11 Generation as a foundational contribution to an emerging veteran studies discipline. Drawing on his own experience as a military veteran and interdisciplinary scholar, the reviewer underscores the significance of Martin’s lived authority, interdisciplinary methodology, and critical engagement with public narratives of military service. Martin challenges simplistic cultural stereotypes, such as the hero or the broken warrior, and argues for a dynamic, evolving understanding of veteran identity. He situates his work within both literary and scholarly traditions, from The Things They Carried to intersectional analyses of race and reintegration, and makes a compelling case for an interdisciplinary and veteran-centered academic approach. Ultimately, War & Homecoming is a call to action, urging scholars, policymakers, and advocates to build an academic enterprise that does not merely study veterans but supports and empowers them.