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An Army for Empire The United States Army in the Spanish-American War by Graham A. Cosmas |
"If you can read only one book on the American military in the Spanish-American War, this would be it."—Richard H. Kohn, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
In America's popular memory of the Spanish-American War, the all-volunteer Rough Riders won the war in spite of ossified civilian and regular army leadership. In An Army for Empire, first published in 1971, Graham A. Cosmas reconstructs the planning and execution of the war from the perspective of the president, the secretary of war, the commanding general of the army, and the chief and commanders of the army's various bureaus and corps.
Cosmas argues that the traditional view of the war is from the "bottom up" because, while headlines were being made about inadequate supplies, disease, and outdated weapons at ground level, the civilian and military figures at the highest ranks remained virtually silent about how and why they made their decisions. This volume is based on intensive research in documentary materials, including the personal papers of President William McKinley and Secretary of War Russell A. Alger, as well as the voluminous files of Adj. Gen. Henry Clark Corbin and the quartermaster general's offices.
Faced with budgetary pressure from Congress, political pressure from the states' National Guard units, and the president's shifting stand on objectives for the war, the army was indeed ill prepared for its sudden mobilization. Cosmas concludes that the army's leadership was forced into a difficult new position in 1898, one in which its own new ideas of management coupled with broad new national objectives failed to address the actual circumstances of the war.
This paperback edition incorporates the preface and revisions made for the 1994 hardcover release.
GRAHAM A. COSMAS is head of the General Histories Branch of the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C.
Number Fifty-nine: Texas A&M University Military History Series
An Army for Empire
ISBN 0-89096-816-0 paper $17.95x
LC 97-38407. 6x9. 368 pp. 40 b&w photos.
4 maps. Bib. Index.
Military History. Spanish-American War.
Publication Date: January 1998.
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