The draft, or more accurately, selective military conscription, was the primary means by which men were inducted into the American armed forces during World War II. The Selective Service Act of 1940 established the first peacetime military conscription...

The Conscription Crisis of 1944 was a political and military crisis in Canada during World War II. It was similar to the Conscription Crisis of 1917, but was not as politically...

In the First World War desertion was a serious drain on manpower. However, thanks in no small part to the judicious use of capital punishment, it never got out of hand. The death penalty for most military crimes, including desertion and cowardice, was abolished...

Many who supported the campaign for compulsory military service in Edwardian Britain saw it as a necessary measure against the threat of invasion and the shadow of German militarism. Others identified it as a valuable counter to 'softness, indiscipline and unmanliness' in young...