How will years of war change us? Several landmarks in Marne,
Mich., are named "Berlin," including the Baptist church, the
fairgrounds and the racetrack. That's because Marne, home to
many German settlers in the 19th century, was named Berlin —
until the United States entered World War I. Across the nation,
anti-German hysteria drove German-American culture underground.
German newspapers and schools closed. Sauerkraut briefly became
"liberty cabbage." And Berlin, Mich., adopted a less
controversial name. Marne is one reminder that America's foreign
wars always have changed American society — from the War of
1812, which set the stage for continental expansion and Manifest
Destiny, to Vietnam, which ignited a political-cultural brawl.
Today, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan seem to have left
relatively few marks on the home front — no rationing,
censorship or conscription, no victory gardens or internment
camps. But they are changing the nation, sometimes in ways we
barely comprehend. Some are tangible: the firs