The Old Army

By Edward M. Coffman,

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

Book description

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…

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

Why read it?

1 author picked The Old Army as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

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.

From Brian's list on the peacetime US Army.

If you love The Old Army...

Ad

Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up…

Want books like The Old Army?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Old Army.

Browse books like The Old Army

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 From Here to Eternity

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

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

1,888

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like The Old Army, you might also like...

Book cover of The Lion and the Fox: Two Rival Spies and the Secret Plot to Build a Confederate Navy

The Lion and the Fox by Alexander Rose,

From the author of Washington’s Spies, the thrilling story of two rival secret agents — one Confederate, the other Union — sent to Britain during the Civil War.

The South’s James Bulloch, charming and devious, was ordered to acquire a clandestine fleet intended to break Lincoln’s blockade, sink Northern…

Book cover of Harry and Arthur: Truman, Vandenberg, and the Partnership That Created the Free World

Harry and Arthur by Lawrence J. Haas,

With Franklin Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, Vice President Harry Truman and Senator Arthur Vandenberg, the Republican leader on foreign policy, inherited a world in turmoil. With Europe flattened and the Soviets emerging as America’s new adversary, Truman and Vandenberg built a tight, bipartisan partnership at a bitterly partisan time…

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the United States Army, peace, and empathy?

Peace 26 books
Empathy 170 books