Read complete books and articles on: U.S. Army History

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16 of the Best Books and Articles on: U.S. Army History

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

A Handbook of American Military History: From the Revolutionary War to the Present » Read Now
by Kevin B. Byrne, Jerry M. Cooper. 319 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
2.

American Military History: 1775-1902, Vol. 1 » Read Now
by Maurice Matloff. 380 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Originally designed for military professionals, this landmark work is now made available to the general public. Solidly based on the nine principles of war currently recognized by the U.S. military, this is the ultimate nuts and bolts approach to military campaigns, with emphasis on the tactics and challenges of each era.
3.

American Military History: 1902-1996, Vol. 2 » Read Now
by Maurice Matloff. 419 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Originally designed for military professionals, this landmark work is now made available to the general public. Solidly based on the nine principles of war currently recognized by the U.S. military, this is the ultimate nuts and bolts approach to military campaigns, with emphasis on the tactics and challenges of each era.
4.

America as a Military Power: From the American Revolution to the Civil War » Read Now
by Jeremy Black. 232 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Noted military historian Jeremy Black examines American military exceptionalism with the critical eye of a foreign scholar. This book utilizes contemporary British commentary to contextualize American actions within a global perspective during a critical period.
5.

Military Heritage of America » Read Now
by R. Ernest Dupuy, Trevor N. Dupuy. 800 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
6.

After the Trenches: The Transformation of U.S. Army Doctrine, 1918-1939 » Read Now
by William O. Odom. 282 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

At the end of the Great War, the U.S. Army faced the challenge of integrating what it had learned in the failures and ultimate success of its war effort. During the interwar years the army sought to balance readiness and modernization in a period of limited resources and technological advances with...
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At the end of the Great War, the U.S. Army faced the challenge of integrating what it had learned in the failures and ultimate success of its war effort. During the interwar years the army sought to balance readiness and modernization in a period of limited resources and technological advances with profound implications for the conduct of warfare. In After the Trenches, William O. Odom traces the development of combat doctrine between the world wars through an examination of the army's primary doctrine manuals, the Field Service Regulations.
The Field Service Regulations of 1923 successfully assimilated the experiences of the First World War and translated them into viable tactical practice, Odom argues in this unique study. Rapidly developing technologies generated more efficient tools of war and greatly expanded the scale, tempo, and complexity of warfare. Personnel and material shortages led to a decline in the quality of army doctrine evidenced in the 1939 regulations. Examining the development of doctrine and the roles of key personalities such as John Pershing, Hugh Drum, George Lynch, Frank Parker, and Lesley McNair, Odom concludes that the successive revisions of the manual left the army scurrying to modernize its woefully outdated doctrine on the eve of the new war.
This impressively researched study of the doctrine of the interwar army fills a significant gap in our understanding of the development of the U.S. Army during the first half of the twentieth century. It will serve scholars and others interested in military history as the standard reference on the subject. Moreover, many of the challenges and conditions that existed seventy years ago resemble those faced bytoday's army. This study of the army's historical responses to a declining military budget and an ever-changing technology will broaden the perspectives of those who must deal with these important contemporary issues.
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7.

Against All Enemies: Interpretations of American Military History from Colonial Times to the Present » Read Now
by Kenneth J. Hagan, William R. Roberts. 396 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...elective course on the history of American foreign policy...of the officers of the U.S. Army. One of his best students...especially noteworthy to us: the increasing...
8.

To the Point: The United States Military Academy, 1802-1902 » Read Now
by George S. Pappas. 474 pgs.

Collections: History, Education, Entire Library

This volume goes beyond military personalities to cover the first 100 years of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Pappas focuses on the institution itself--describing how the Academy was formed and who its early leaders were. He tells us of the central role of Jonathan Williams and Sylvanus...
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This volume goes beyond military personalities to cover the first 100 years of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Pappas focuses on the institution itself--describing how the Academy was formed and who its early leaders were. He tells us of the central role of Jonathan Williams and Sylvanus Thayer in ensuring that West Point would become both a military academy and a quality engineering school--despite many problems in its early years. Emphasis is placed on descriptions of events found in letters and diaries of cadets, officers, and family members. Myths and legends about the Academy without any factual basis are thoroughly debunked. Pappas also recounts the development of the instructors, the curriculum, and the cadet; the importance of honor; the creation of a library; the role of discipline; daily exams and weekly academic reports; life in the barracks; Benny Haven's Tavern--these and many other vignettes of West Point are brought to life in an unparalleled writing style. Including numerous photographs and maps, this book will both fascinate and teach. A must for all military historians, buffs, West Point graduates, and veterans.
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9.

The West Point Story, in The American Enterprise » Read Now
by Bill Kauffman. 39 pgs.

Collections: Education, Entire Library
10.

The Class of 1861: Custer, Ames, and Their Classmates after West Point » Read Now
by Ralph Kirshner. 230 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Ralph Kirshner has provided a richly illustrated forum to enable the West Point class of 1861 to write its own autobiography. Through letters, journals, and published accounts, George Armstrong Custer, Adelbert Ames, and their classmates tell in their own words of their Civil War battles and varied...
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Ralph Kirshner has provided a richly illustrated forum to enable the West Point class of 1861 to write its own autobiography. Through letters, journals, and published accounts, George Armstrong Custer, Adelbert Ames, and their classmates tell in their own words of their Civil War battles and varied careers after the war.
Two classes graduated from West Point in 1861 because of Lincoln's need of lieutenants, forty-five cadets in Ames's class in May and thirty-four in Custer's class in June. The cadets range from Henry Algernon du Pont, first in the class of May, whose home is now Winterthur Gardens, to Custer, last in the class of June. "Only thirty-four graduated", remarked Custer, "and of these thirty-three graduated above me". West Point's mathematics professor and librarian Oliver Otis Howard, after whom Howard University is named, is also portrayed.
Other famous names from the class of 1861 are John Pelham, Emory Upton, Thomas L. Rosser, John Herbert Kelly (the youngest general in the Confederacy when appointed), Patrick O'Rorke (head of the class of June), Alonzo Cushing, Peter Hains, Edmund Kirby, John Adair (the only deserter in the class), and Judson Kilpatrick (great-grandfather of Gloria Vanderbilt). They describe West Point before the Civil War, the war years, including the Vicksburg campaign and the battle of Gettysburg, the courage and character of classmates, and the ending of the war.
Kirshner also highlights postwar lives, including Custer at Little Bighorn; Custer's rebel friend Rosser; John Whitney Barlow, who explored Yellowstone; du Pont, senator and author; Kilpatrick, playwright and diplomat; Orville E. Babcock, Grant's secretary until his indictment in the"Whiskey Ring"; Pierce M. B. Young, a Confederate general who became a diplomat; Hains, the only member of the class to serve on active duty in World War I; and Upton, "the class genius".
The book features eighty-three phot
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11.

How America Fought Its Wars: Military Strategy from the American Revolution to the Civil War » Read Now
by Victor Brooks, Robert Hohwald. 496 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The new American nation fought for its survival against a variety of enemies, both foreign and domestic; during a series of wars from 1775 to 1865. The authors examine in considerable detail the various battles and campaigns of the early wars fought by the young republic, in search of common factors...
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The new American nation fought for its survival against a variety of enemies, both foreign and domestic; during a series of wars from 1775 to 1865. The authors examine in considerable detail the various battles and campaigns of the early wars fought by the young republic, in search of common factors that may have led to the nation's survival and triumph. The vast distances, sparse population, and supply problems endemic to all the campaigns in North America are carefully examined. In all its early wars, the United States relied upon a small force of professional soldiers backed up by larger numbers of short-term volunteers: the positive and negative effects of this policy in each war are considered. For each war, the commanders for each side are rated as to performance, and an analysis made of how their individual strengths and weaknesses may have influenced the outcome of the conflict.
At the end of each part of the book, the authors rate the generals' performances (find out why they think Longstreet earned a "B" while Johnston flunked).
A specially commissioned series of maps make clear the various strategic and tactical issues at stake from the American Revolution to the end of the Civil War.
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12.

Hardtack and Coffee, Or the Unwritten Story of Army Life » Read Now
by John D. Billings, Charles W. Reed, William L. Shea. 413 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Most histories of the Civil War focus on battles and top brass. Hardtack and Coffee is one of the few to give a vivid, detailed picture of what ordinary soldiers endured every day--in camp, on the march, at the edge of a booming, smoking hell.
13.

Raiders Or Elite Infantry? The Changing Role of the U.S. Army Rangers from Dieppe to Grenada » Read Now
by David W. Hogan Jr. 272 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This landmark study examines the nature and purpose of the U.S. Army Rangers over the past fifty years and shows how they have been used as scouts, raiders, assault troops, and elite infantry. This provocative study describes how Rangers served their country during World War II. Hogan, an historian...
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This landmark study examines the nature and purpose of the U.S. Army Rangers over the past fifty years and shows how they have been used as scouts, raiders, assault troops, and elite infantry. This provocative study describes how Rangers served their country during World War II. Hogan, an historian with the U.S. Army Center of Military History, also traces the development of Ranger raider units in Korea, the role of Green Berets in Vietnam, in Grenada, and in terrorist attacks and new combat situations today. Photographs, maps, and a thorough bibliographic essay add to the usefulness of the study.
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14.

The Organization and Administration of the Union Army, 1861-1865 » Read Now
by Fred Albert Shannon. 330 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...remaining organized resources. A few of these...F. Rhodes, History of Civil War...Four Years with Army of Potomac...19 U. S. Public Statutes...122 U. S. Statutes...
15.

Leaders in War: West Point Remembers the 1991 Gulf War » Read Now
by Frederick W. Kagan, Chris Kubik. 200 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

'Leaders in War' provides first-person perspectives across the spectrum of American combat operations during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. From division commanders to platoon leaders, the authors offer an insider's view of tough leadership challenges, tragic failures and triumphant victories.
16.

Wingless Eagle: U.S. Army Aviation through World War I » Read Now
by Herbert A. Johnson. 298 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

At the start of the twentieth century the United States led the world in advances in aviation, with the first successful engine-powered flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and Dayton, Ohio, beginning in 1903. Fifteen years later, however, American airmen flew European-designed aircraft because...
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At the start of the twentieth century the United States led the world in advances in aviation, with the first successful engine-powered flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and Dayton, Ohio, beginning in 1903. Fifteen years later, however, American airmen flew European-designed aircraft because American planes were woefully inadequate for service on the Western Front. Why was the United States so poorly prepared to engage in aerial combat in World War I?
To answer this question, Herbert Johnson takes a hard look at the early years of U.S. military aviation, exploring the cultural, technical, political, and organizational factors that stunted its evolution. Among the recurring themes of Johnson's narrative are the damaging effects of a chronic lack of governmental funding for military aeronautics and the disruptive influence of a civilian "aeronaut constituency" both on military discipline and on public and Congressional attitudes toward army aviation. In addition, the Wright brothers' patent litigation hindered the technical development of American aircraft and crippled the domestic aviation industry's manufacturing capacity. Wartime experience helped correct some of these problems, but the persistence of others left the postwar Air Service with an uncertain and stormy future.
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