William Trousdale is Emeritus Curator of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution, former curator at the Freer Gallery and adjunct instructor at several military academies. In addition to his work on military schools, he is an expert on the art and archaeology of Central and East Asia and on the British colonial period in Asia. Trousdale directed the Helmand-Sistan Archaeological Project in Afghanistan and is author of The Long Sword And Scabbard Slide In Asia; Gordon Creeds in Afghanistan, 1839 and 1878-79; Kandahar in the Nineteenth Century; War in Afghanistan, 1879-80: The Personal Diary of Major General Sir Charles Metcalfe MacGregor; and City In The Desert (co-A01.

"I unequivocally and without reservation commend Dr. Trousdale's work as a must read for a potential parent, potential student, school administrator, counselor, teacher, and anyone just plain interested in this special educational setting..I found it knowledgeable, well constructed, and informative. It is the type of book long needed in the private military school arena as a guide to parents to dispel the myths about such schools. For far too long the truth has been clouded in mystery, half truths, and pure fiction. Dr. Trousdale's work fills a void and, even better, provides a real source of information for that parent or guardian seeking to find that special placement for ward or son." - Col. Roy W. Berwick, President, Oak Ridge Military Academy "Total institutions are viewed as highly controlling, confining, and bureacratic places where inmates have little contact with the outside world. Unfortunately, military boarding schools for boys are guilty by association in the general public's mind. But this book shows them to be such only in structure, and not for the content and process of what unfolds in the day-to-day lives of the cadets, their loved ones, and the staff that serves them. This book is important because it provides a rare view to the backstage world of the increasinly elusive and private military academy for children and adolescents. It provides a thick description of the everyday world of academies. It is a big picture perspective on military schools that board exclusively boys--it is comprehensive, deep, and grounded in a realtive reality boarding on some common, generalized truth. It is a social scientific examination of broad and important proportions, contrasted greatly with the narrower views of medical doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and educators, far more focused in their case studies." - Morten G. Ender, Sociology Program, US Military Academy, West Point

• Introduction; Part 1 The Ethics of Admission: Who, What, Where, Why, When … and How; Chapter 1 The Numbers Game; Chapter 2 Families; Part 2 From Boys to Gentlemen; Chapter 3 The Man and His Gentlemen; Chapter 4 New Lives for Old; Chapter 5 Onward and Usually Upward; Chapter 6 A Sense of Worth; Chapter 7 Old Rusty Nails and Puppy Dogs’ Tails …; Part 3 Watchman, What of the Night?; Chapter 8 Downward toward Disaster; Chapter 9 Man to Man; Chapter 10 Crooked Timber; Chapter 11 Tradition into Tragedy; Chapter 12 Broken Windows; Part 4 Monastery or Magic Kingdom; Chapter 13 Traditional Values vs. Modern Mayhem; Chapter 14 Survival of the Military School; Chapter 15 Suicidal Reinvention; Chapter 16 Cadet Nomenclature; Chapter 17 The Academic Component; Chapter 18 The Curriculum; Chapter 19 The Military Component; Chapter 20 The Athletic Component; Chapter 21 Sanctuary; Part 5 The Change is Forever; Chapter 22 The Change Is Forever;