Published: 9 October 2007
Air & Space Power Journal - Winter 2007
The Regulars: The American Army, 1898–1941 by Edward M. Coffman. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/index.html), 79 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, 2004, 528 pages, $35.00 (hardcover); 2007, $21.95 (softcover).
With the publication of The Regulars, Dr. Edward M. Coffman—professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison—has completed his two-volume social history of the US Army from 1784 to 1941. The current book is a fitting and worthy companion to the first volume, The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784–1898 (Oxford University Press, 1986). In the present book, Coffman charts the lives of Army officers and soldiers, specifically regarding their efforts in transforming their institution from a frontier constabulary force to a modern army. Coffman argues that this transformation was due to the managerial revolution at the turn of the century, a revolution that affected almost every aspect of American society.
Coffman demonstrates once again his mastery of historical research. He not only exploited the vast riches in the National Archives, US Military History Institute, and Special Collections and Archives Division of the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, but also conducted more than 75 interviews. Furthermore, in the 1970s, he developed his own questionnaire, which garnered over 320 replies. Coffman has accumulated research material that only few other people—perhaps none—ever have. In short, it is an impressive achievement, and, fortunately, he has put his research to good use.
The book is extremely well written and convincingly creates a composite biography of the Army in the first half of the twentieth century as officers and soldiers morphed from an old service to a modern one, organized around management ideas that have played such an important part of this century as well as the last. Coffman is not content, however, with analyzing the combat arms of the Army (infantry, cavalry, artillery, air corps, and armored force); he takes the reader into the private lives of his subjects and re-creates their world. We are introduced to the early lives of such men as Joseph W. Stillwell, Omar Bradley, Forrest Harding, George S. Patton Jr., Jacob Devers, William H. Simpson, and many others. With these men, we are taken back to see what life was like serving in the Philippines, fighting in Europe during World War I, living during the lean years of the Great Depression, and mobilizing for total war in the late 1930s and early 1940s. In all, it is a compelling tale of an important phase of US Army history—one that contains many lessons about a military organization’s response to vast social changes. Even an Airman would profit from this examination.
Coffman spends considerable time examining the birth of aviation within the Army. The story of this development helps explain much of the current organizational culture of the US Air Force. In addition, Coffman’s analysis will render great service to the Airman who must work in an increasingly joint environment. After all, understanding the unique perspectives of fellow services and, subsequently, how these services can work together is one of the fundamental requirements for efficient and effective joint warfare. For the Airman or for those interested in a thorough understanding of Army history in the first half of the twentieth century, Coffman’s The Regulars is the best place to start.
Dr. Kevin C. Holzimmer
Maxwell AFB, Alabama
Disclaimer
Book Reviews | Home Page |Feedback? Email the Editor