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These five volumes concern one of the most important institutions in human history, the military, and the interactions of that institution with the greater society. Military systems serve nations; they may also reflect them. Soldiers are enlisted; they may also be said to self-select. Military units have missions; they also have interests. In an older, more traditional military history, while the second reflects a newer approach. Although each statement in the pairs may be said to be true, the former speak from the framework of the military sciences; the latter, from the framework of the social and behavioral sciences.
The military systems of our past differ from one another over time, in political origins, size, missions, and technological and tactical fashions, but to a great extent their historical experiences have been more noticeably similar than they were different. When we ask questions about the recruiting, training, or motivating of military systems, or of those systems' interactions with civilian governments and with the greater society, as do the essays in these five volumes of reading on The Military and Society we are struck by the almost timeless patterns of continuity and similarity of experience.
In each of these volumes approximately half of the essays selected deal with the experience in the United States; the other half, with the experiences of other states and times, enabling the reader to engage in comparative analysis.
List of contents
Series Introduction, Volume Introduction, The Nature of Athenian Hoplite Democracy, War and the Birth of the Nation State, Middle-Class Society and the Rise of Military Professionalism: The Dutch Army, 1589-1609, Horses, Firearms, and Political Power in Pre-Colonial West Africa, A Reexamination of the Causes of Plains Warfare, The Collision of Military Cultures in Seventeenth-Century New England, A New Look at Colonial Militia, Pennsylvania Revolutionary Officers and the Federal Constitution, The Wisconsin National Guard in the Milwaukee Riots of 1886, Black Soldiers on the White Frontier: Some Factors Influencing Race Relations, The Alleged Isolation of U.S. Army Officers in the Late 19th Century, For a Socio-Historical Approach to the Study of Western Military Culture, Militarism and Militarization in the Public Schools, 1900-1972, Some Furious Outbursts of Riot: Returned Soldiers and Queensland's Red Flag Disturbances, 1918-1919, The Free Corps Movement in Post-World War I Europe, The Veteran in the Electoral Process: The House of Representatives, The Convergence of Military and Civilian Occupational Structures: Evidence from Studies of Military Retired Employment, Military Service and Racial Attitudes of White Veterans, The Relation of the French Peasant Veterans of the American Revolution to the Fall of Feudalism in France, 1789-1792, Acknowledgments
About the author
Peter Karsten
Summary
These five volumes concern one of the most important institutions in human history, the military, and the interactions of that institution with the greater society. Military systems serve nations; they may also reflect them. Soldiers are enlisted; they may also be said to self-select. Military units have missions; they also have interests. In an older, more traditional military history, while the second reflects a newer approach. Although each statement in the pairs may be said to be true, the former speak from the framework of the military sciences; the latter, from the framework of the social and behavioral sciences.
The military systems of our past differ from one another over time, in political origins, size, missions, and technological and tactical fashions, but to a great extent their historical experiences have been more noticeably similar than they were different. When we ask questions about the recruiting, training, or motivating of military systems, or of those systems' interactions with civilian governments and with the greater society, as do the essays in these five volumes of reading on The Military and Society we are struck by the almost timeless patterns of continuity and similarity of experience.
In each of these volumes approximately half of the essays selected deal with the experience in the United States; the other half, with the experiences of other states and times, enabling the reader to engage in comparative analysis.
