The Rise of the National Guard: The Evolution of the American Militia, 1865-1920

by Jerry Cooper

Book Overview

From the beginning of our republic the concept of a citizen soldiery, organized through militias, has undergirded American military philosophy. This nation fought the Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Mexican War, and began the Civil War, relying on volunteer militias and only a skeletal professional military force. The Civil War demonstrated the need to adapt state militias to the requirements of modern war, yet the United States retained its...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803264283
• ISBN13: 9780803264281
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

critical to understanding today's Guard

A well-researched and -written work on how state militias evolved into the early National Guard, in the years between the Civil War and WWI. It was this period in which state militias, a force originally designed by the Framers to be an alternative to a standing army, only then took on some cohesion -- and gradually came under national control. (Mr. Cooper does provide brief reviews of pre-1865 and post-WWI militia to put all this in context). Given that the National Guard today (June 2005) is a major part of national effort both in home defense and in the war overseas, this book is a fine start in understanding how the Guard began -- and that beginning is during the period this book covers. Recommended especially for legal and serious military scholars. If this is a first volume, to be continued into 1920-2000 as the Guard became a predominantly national defense asset (and less and less that of the States), then Mr. Cooper's next work on the Guard will be something to look forward to.