Customer Reviews

Major Problems in American Military History: Documents and Essays (Major Problems in American History Series)

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The collection of documents contained in the book provides a good look at major problems and issues spanning the entire three-hundred (say from the founding of Jamestown) or so years of American military history. Of particular interest to me was General Patton's commentary on the U.S. Army's position on tanks during the period between World War I and World War II.

There are also some articles on doctrine and on the establishment of a professional standing army. The documents do a good job of tracing the evolution of the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force. In the end, the book provides a good collection of opinions on important subjects in the military's past and present.

Great book to see how the primary sources about specific topics can be reflected on by historians to create interesting essays.

The book is organized into chapters about specific periods in American military history. The first portion of each chapter includes a series of primary source documents describing the time period or some particular issue (the creation of a distinct American Air Force, for example). The second portion of the chapter includes essays written by today's historians analyzing the issue or event described in the documents.

To help those of us just learning about the issues described in each chapter, the chapters begin with an introduction to provide a more global look at the issues to be presented. The document and essay sections each also have a brief introduction to describe the passages.

The wrong item was shipped to me, but the seller quickly refunded the cost of the book for me. The seller allowed me to keep the textbook sent due to loss of shipping and handling paid.