Historians, while recognizing the emergence of a pre-Civil War professional army, have generally placed the solid foundation of military professionalism in the post-Civil War era. William Skelton maintains, however, that the early national and antebellum eras were crucial to the rise of the American profession of arms. Although tiny by today's standards, the early officer corps nevertheless maintained strong institutional support and internal cohesion through a regular system of recruitment, professional training and education, and a high degree of leadership continuity. Through socialization and lengthening career commitments, officers came to share a common vision of their collective role with respect to warfare, foreign policy, Indian affairs, domestic politics, and civilian life. The result, Skelton shows, was the formation of a distinctive military subculture rooted in tightly knit garrison communities across the frontier and along the seaboard from which prominent Civil War leaders would emerge and whose essential character would persist well into the twentieth century.
Much has been written about the exploits of the American Expeditionary Forces, the men and women sent overseas to fight during World War I, but much less is known about the two million who served in the Army without ever setting foot on foreign soil. This book examines the history of depot brigades, development battalions, U.S. Guards units, Students' Army Training Corps, and other "forgotten" troops charged with training soldiers, guarding installations, and performing myriad other duties. It also chronicles the service of men like actor Jimmy Cagney, author F. Scott Fitzgerald, movie director Frank Capra, children's author Ludwig Bemelmans, and the two million others who served in the United States during the war. At the time, many of these men considered themselves unfortunate cast-offs, doomed to spend the war safe at home while their friends served in combat overseas. But, in the end, it was largely because of them that America could field an effective fighting force.
