Joseph G. Dawson III - Böcker

This book is an abridged edition of the critically acclaimed, three-volume Dictionary of American Military Biography (Greenwood Press, 1984). The scope of the original work encompassed a much wider range of people than soldiers; it included politicians, scientists, inventors, explorers, physicians, and humanitarians who had a significant impact on American military history. This new edition focuses on the most distinguished and important battle commanders in American history from colonial times to the present. Each essay incorporates the latest scholarship on the life under study, depicting the background, education, professional development, and accomplishments of the most notable practitioners of the art of war. Unlike most works of this genre, American Military Leaders offers critical appraisals of its subjects. The essays were contributed by some 100 military historians. Cross references and bibliographies are provided. There is a new introduction and an enhanced reference index.This careful abridgement of an acknowledged classic guide to military history can be used as a supplementary text for courses on the evolution of war and American military history. Professional soldiers will welcome its emphasis on battlefield warriors and military history buffs will find it both insightful and enjoyable reading.

A strong addition to the existing military history reference literature and to its series. . . . Dawson's research guide is more useful than a standard bibliography, and much more thorough for the time period covered than [other] sources. . . . Dawson builds his guide around more than 1,100 bibliographic entries, many of which have brief, descriptive annotations. The citations, arranged topically in eight chapters, are drawn from books, periodicals, and dissertations. A ninth chapter covers pertinent government documents and manuscript collections. Author and subject indexes and four useful appendixes are included. There is a fine introductory essay: the preface lists and briefly describes 50 top secondary sources selected from the larger body of literature. These features truly enhance the bibliographic core of the book and make it a guide useful to general readers, upper-level undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars. ChoiceThe period between the Civil War and the end of the nineteenth century was a time of hard choices for the U.S. Army and those who led it. The federal government thrust numerous responsibilities upon the military, including pacifying the Indians, patrolling the defeated Confederacy, suppressing striking laborers, and supervising national parks. This comprehensive bibliography focuses on this period of military history, cataloging, surveying, and appraising the substantial body of contemporary and historical literature that traces the evolution of the U.S. Army from 1865 to 1898. As the largest single-volume reference work of its type, the book covers all major aspects of Army activities, and contains annotations on 80 percent of its entries.Following a series foreword by Roger J. Spiller and a brief introduction, the volume begins with an extensive survey of government documents and manuscript collections. Included here is a wide variety of U.S. government publications pertaining to the Army, many from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Subsequent chapters group sources under bibliographic topics, such as general secondary works, fiction, and memoirs and contemporary accounts, as well as under subjects that refer to the Army's activities. These include the Army and Reconstruction, the Indian-fighting Army, forts and post life, the late 19th century Army, and coastal defense. A series of appendixes provides a period chronology, list commanding generals and secretaries of war, and chart army strength. A set of author and subject indexes conclude the work. The Late 19th Century U.S. Army will be an important addition to the collections of public and academic libraries, and a useful resource tool for courses in U.S. history and military history.

A team of leading American military historians here investigate the factors that shaped the United States Army in the nineteenth century.Throwing new light on its history, this deeply researched book explores a mulitplicity of themes. These include the social structure, command system and relationship with civil power which are all important in assessing its efficiency and behaviour in war; and the way the army is depicted in military literature and cinema which affects its social portrait.Deliberately exploring neglected themes, this key work includes discussion on:* the roles of the many volunteer colonels in the Mexican War, 1846-48* Robert Wettemann and the alleged 'isolation' of the US Army in the nineteenth century* John Ford's famous 'cavalry trilogy' of motion pictures.Containing so much food for thought, for students of US history and military history this is an entertaining as well as instructional book.