Why am I passionate about this?

I am a historian of modern (post-1898) American military history who has been fortunate enough to be at a university that supports my research. I have always been fascinated by the “black holes” in military history, the topics that are not glamorous like the big wars, charismatic generals, or Washington-level civil-military relations. This has led me to study such obscure topics as the conquest and pacification of the Philippines, the forty-year plans for Pacific defense prior to World War II, and how military officers have envisioned future war. The peacetime US Army is a terrific “black hole” because so many people, civilians, and military, assume that they already know that history.


I wrote

Book cover of Elvis's Army: Cold War GIs and the Atomic Battlefield

What is my book about?

Elvis’s Army explores the great military and social experiment that was the Cold War atomic army. Militarily, the US Army transformed…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

The books I picked & why

Book cover of America's Army: Making the All-Volunteer Force

Brian McAllister Linn Why did I love this book?

This is a fascinating study of the creation, evolution, and ultimate success of the All-Volunteer Army after Vietnam. Bailey maintains her historical objectivity even when dealing with controversial and emotional subjects such as race, the role of women, and the Army’s commitment to combat. As she explores this traumatic institutional shift from war to peace, she skillfully interweaves the experiences of individuals into the story. The result is a well-written, enjoyable work that both meets the highest standards of scholarship and is enlightening and entertaining.

By Beth L Bailey,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked America's Army as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1973, not long after the last American combat troops returned from Vietnam, President Nixon fulfilled his campaign promise and ended the draft. No longer would young men find their futures determined by the selective service system; nor would the U.S. military have a guaranteed source of recruits.

America's Army is the story of the all-volunteer force, from the draft protests and policy proposals of the 1960s through the Iraq War. It is also a history of America in the post-Vietnam era. In the Army, America directly confronted the legacies of civil rights and black power, the women's movement, and…


Book cover of Preparing for War: The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army, 1815-1917

Brian McAllister Linn Why did I love this book?

A pathbreaking study of the century-long transformation from frontier constabulary and border protection force to a modern army organized to wage industrial warfare against a rival Great Power. Clark brilliantly traces the intellectual evolution of Army concepts of future conflict, how they were shaped by experiences and observations of war, and the emergence of distinct generations of reformers. Exceptionally well researched and written, Clark’s work undermines much of both the historical and theoretical interpretations of military reform, proving that the path to the modern army was tortuous, contested, and uneven, with yesterday’s reformers becoming today’s reactionaries. The book is not only a terrific history, it is essential reading for those who want to understand today’s Army.

By J. P. Clark,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Preparing for War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The U.S. Army has always regarded preparing for war as its peacetime role, but how it fulfilled that duty has changed dramatically over time. J. P. Clark traces the evolution of the Army between the War of 1812 and World War I, showing how differing personal experiences of war and peace among successive generations of professional soldiers left their mark upon the Army and its ways.

Nineteenth-century officers believed that generalship and battlefield command were more a matter of innate ability than anything institutions could teach. They saw no benefit in conceptual preparation beyond mastering technical skills like engineering and…


Book cover of The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898

Brian McAllister Linn Why did I love this book?

Coffman’s twin volumes are a, if not the, foundational texts on the social history of the peacetime US Army. Drawing on a host of sources, the books brought to light, in many cases for the first time, the experiences of officers, enlisted men, and their families from the Regular Army’s founding to the outbreak of World War II. Without apparent effort, the late Mac Coffman combined the history of a military organization with the stories of hundreds of individuals who were its components, and he did it with empathy, warmth, humor, and masterly tale-telling.

By Edward M. Coffman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Old Army as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of the most important works of military history published in the last decade, The Old Army is the only comprehensive study of the people who made up the "garrison world" in the peacetime intervals between the War for Independence and the Spanish-American War. Drawing on diaries, letters, and other primary documents, Edward M. Coffman vividly recreates the harsh, often lonely life of men, collected mostly from the streets of Northern cities, for whom
enlistment was "a leap in the dark...a choice of evils." He pays special attention to the roles of women and children, as well as black Americans,…


Book cover of From Here to Eternity

Brian McAllister Linn Why did I love this book?

There are many novels of the peacetime US Army, but most of them, such as Anton Myrer’s much-beloved Once an Eagle, are about officers (almost inevitably good) participating in epic historical events. Jones's book was one of the first to reveal the khaki-collar enlisted culture, the rigid caste line between officers and their troops, and the ruthless ambition and careerism that typified too many military leaders. At the time it shocked civilians (and outraged officers) with its harsh depiction of barracks life, the boredom and meaningless ritual, the obsession with sports, the drinking and prostitutes, and incessant brutal tyranny justified as discipline. Although modern readers will find it overlong, sex-obsessed, and repetitive, it remains essential to understanding enlisted life in the pre-World War II army. 

By James Jones,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked From Here to Eternity as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'I'll never understand the fucking Army.'

Prew won't conform. He could have been the best boxer and the best bugler in his division, but he chooses the life of a straight soldier in Hawaii under the fierce tutelage of Sergeant Milt Warden. When he refuses to box for his company for mysterious reasons, he is given 'The Treatment', a relentless campaign of physical and mental abuse. Meanwhile, Warden wages his own campaign against authority by seducing the Captain's wife Karen - just because he can. Both men are bound to the Army, even though it may destroy them.

Published here…


Book cover of Jackson's Sword: The Army Officer Corps on the American Frontier, 1810-1821

Brian McAllister Linn Why did I love this book?

Sam Watson’s two volumes fully integrate the US Army into the history of the Jacksonian Era. These works demonstrate the Army’s vital role in issues as diverse as populism, professionalism, federalism, military policy, and the controversial suppression, dispossession, and forced relocation of Native Americans. His extensively-researched work not only shows the Army’s diplomatic-police role, but why, despite the Jacksonian’s ideological opposition to a standing army, they made it so central to national policy on the frontier.

By Samuel J. Watson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Jackson's Sword as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Jackson's Sword is the initial volume in a monumental study that provides a sweeping panoramic view of the U.S. Army and its officer corps from the War of 1812 to the War with Mexico, the first such study in more than forty years. Watson's chronicle shows how the officer corps played a crucial role in stabilising the frontiers of a rapidly expanding nation, while gradually moving away from military adventurism toward a professionalism subordinate to civilian authority.

Jackson's Swordexplores problems of institutional instability, multiple loyalties, and insubordination as it demonstrates how the officer corps often undermined-and sometimes supplanted-civilian authority with…


Explore my book 😀

Book cover of Elvis's Army: Cold War GIs and the Atomic Battlefield

What is my book about?

Elvis’s Army explores the great military and social experiment that was the Cold War atomic army. Militarily, the US Army transformed for the revolution in warfare initiated by nuclear weapons. Traumatized by Cold War reductions and Korea, it seized on the vision of a great atomic land war against the Soviet Union. The Army not only developed a radically new way of fighting, but underwent radical changes in its equipment, its training, and its organization—the infamous Pentomic division. Socially, in the 1950s the service underwent even more of a transformation.  In large part due to the draft, the Fifties Army became the nation’s most racially and economically egalitarian institution, impacting American culture in the 1950s from Madison Avenue to Hollywood, and from civil rights to rock-n-roll.

Book cover of America's Army: Making the All-Volunteer Force
Book cover of Preparing for War: The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army, 1815-1917
Book cover of The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,502

readers submitted
so far, will you?

You might also like...

Coyote Weather

By Amanda Cockrell,

Book cover of Coyote Weather

Ad
Amanda Cockrell Author Of Coyote Weather

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Reader Dog walker Lapsed academic

Amanda's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

Coyote weather is the feral, hungry season, drought-stricken, and ready to catch fire. It’s 1967, and the American culture is violently remaking itself while the country is forcibly sending its young men to fight in a deeply unpopular war.

Jerry has stubbornly made no plans for the future because he doesn’t think that, in the shadow of Vietnam, the Cold War, and atomic bomb drills, there is going to be one. Ellen is determined to have a plan because nothing else seems capable of keeping the world from tilting. And the Ghost, who isn’t exactly dead, just wants to go…

Coyote Weather

By Amanda Cockrell,

What is this book about?

Coyote weather is the feral, hungry season in California, when everything is drought-stricken and ready to catch fire. It's 1967 and the American culture is violently remaking itself while the country is forcing its young men to fight in a deeply unpopular war. Jerry has stubbornly made no plans for the future because he believes that, in the shadow of Vietnam, the Cold War and atomic bomb drills, there won't be one. Ellen's determined to have a plan, because nothing else can keep the world from tilting. And the Ghost just wants to go home to a place that won't…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the United States Army, Andrew Jackson, and presidential biography?

Andrew Jackson 19 books