In Labor and the Wartime State, James Atleson examines “labor regulation during World War II and its subsequent effect on postwar labor relations and, especially, labor law” (1). In so doing, Atleson seeks to provide a corrective to existing labor history in which “the dawn of the postwar period is often perceived as unaffected by the war yet somehow quite different from the prewar era.” This paradox of the “unimportant war” is not restricted to labor history, and Atleson's focus on the war can and should become a model for other scholars.