By 1940, Native Americans had experienced many changes and counter-changes in their legal status in the United States. During the nineteenth century, most tribes lost some or all of their ancestral lands and were forced to live on reservations. After the American Civil War, the federal government abrogated the remaining sovereignty of most tribes and required that communal lands be given to individuals. The twentieth century also saw major changes for Native Americans, such as the Citizenship Act and the Indian New Deal. Alison R. Bernstein examines how World War II affected the status and lives of Native Americans in American Indians and World War II: Toward a New Era in Indian Affairs. Bernstein argues that Native people's experiences in military and munitions factories reduced isolation by moving them off reservations and increasing their contact with mainstream American society. Native American contributions to the war effort led both Indians and whites to reconsider the future of Indian political and cultural autonomy. “By the end of the war,” the author states, “Indians were part of the American political process, their economic, social, and cultural status irrevocably altered by the conflict.” The book's seven thematic chapters form a roughly chronological narrative. The first chapter introduces the state of Indian affairs before World War II, following the Indian New Deal of the 1930s. Chapter 2 addresses Native American responses to the establishment of the first peacetime American draft in 1940, including legal challenges based on tribal sovereignty. Chapters 3 and 4 examine Indians' experiences at war and on the home front. The remaining chapters deal with the political repercussions of… half the paper… five of American history. Beyond its value as a historical work, the book can also inform opinions on contemporary issues affecting Native Americans. As reviewer James L. Morrison, Jr. notes, it “sheds new light on the attitudes and behavior of whites as they face the incredibly complicated problem of what to do with a proud racial minority that treasures its separateness and… continues to grow in measure." Larry Burt calls it “a useful aid to understanding recent Indian affairs.” American Indians in World War II is a thorough and accessible read for professional scholars, college students, and laypeople interested in 20th-century Native American history century or a little-known aspect of World War II. Works Cited Bernstein, Alison R. American Indians and World War II: Toward a New Era in Indian Affairs Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.