The American Military Tradition: From Colonial Times to the Present

The American Military Tradition focuses on central questions about the nation’s military heritage: who fought America’s wars, and how did they fight them? To answer these questions, the essays presented here trace the evolution of America’s military tradition from reliance on the citizen-soldier - the minuteman of the American Revolution - to the use of a mixed force that included a growing number of professional soldiers, to the predominance today of all-professional armed forces. The contributors have provided essays that should be both readable and challenging for the undergraduate student. The introduction gives a concise overview of the US military tradition from the country’s settlement to the present. The book’s 11 chapters and afterword then examine in detail three centuries of US military history, from the colonial wars to the Persian Gulf conflict and future warfare. Each chapter, written by a scholar well-known in the field, is prefaced by an introduction that places it in historical context. To assist further study, each chapter also contains a list of sources and suggested readings. This book should be a valuable text for surveys of American military history and it is also appropriate for general US history courses.