Author: Jonson William Miller Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
The founders and officers of the Virginia Military Institute, one of the few American engineering schools in the antebellum period, embedded a particular engineering culture into the curriculum and discipline of the school. This occurred, in some cases, as a consequence of struggles by the elite of western Virginia to gain a greater share of political power in the commonwealth and by the officers of VMI for authority within the field of higher education. In other cases, the engineering culture was crafted as a deliberate strategy within the above struggles. Among the features embedded was the key feature of requiring the subordination of one's own local and individual interests and identities (class, regional, denominational, etc.) to the service of the commonwealth and nation. This particular articulation of service meant the performance of "practical" and "useful" work of internal improvements for the development and defense of the commonwealth and the nation. The students learned and were to employ an engineering knowledge derived from fundamental physical and mathematical principles, as opposed to a craft knowledge learned on the job. To carry out such work and to even develop the capacity to subordinate their own interests, the cadets were disciplined into certain necessary traits, including moral character, industriousness, self-restraint, self-discipline, and subordination to authority.
Author: Michael S. Neiberg Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 9780674041387 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 292
Book Description
This book examines the Reserve Officers Training Corps program as a distinctively American expression of the social, cultural, and political meanings of military service. Since 1950, ROTC has produced nearly two out of three American active duty officers, yet there has been no comprehensive scholarly look at civilian officer education programs in nearly forty years. While most modern military systems educate and train junior officers at insular academies like West Point, only the United States has relied heavily on the active cooperation of its civilian colleges. Michael Neiberg argues that the creation of officer education programs on civilian campuses emanates from a traditional American belief (which he traces to the colonial period) in the active participation of civilians in military affairs. Although this ideology changed shape through the twentieth century, it never disappeared. During the Cold War military buildup, ROTC came to fill two roles: it provided the military with large numbers of well-educated officers, and it provided the nation with a military comprised of citizen-soldiers. Even during the Vietnam era, officers, university administrators, and most students understood ROTC's dual role. The Vietnam War thus led to reform, not abandonment, of ROTC. Mining diverse sources, including military and university archives, Making Citizen-Soldiers provides an in-depth look at an important, but often overlooked, connection between the civilian and military spheres.
Author: Thomas F. Army Publisher: ISBN: Category : Military engineering Languages : en Pages : 554
Book Description
My dissertation explores the critical advantage the Union held over the Confederacy in military engineering. The skills Union soldiers displayed during the war at bridge building, railroad repair, and road making demonstrated mechanical ability and often revealed ingenuity and imagination. These skills were developed during the antebellum period when northerners invested in educational systems that served an industrializing economy. Before the war, northern states' attempt at implementing basic educational reforms, the spread of informal educational practices directed at mechanics and artisans, and the exponential growth in manufacturing all generated a different work related ethos than that of the South. Plantation slavery generated fabulous wealth for a tiny percent of the southern white population. It fostered a particular style of agriculture and scientific farming that limited land use. It curtailed manufacturing opportunities, and it stifled educational opportunities for the middle and lower classes because those in political power feared that an educated yeomanry would be filled with radical ideas such as social equality, and, worst of all, abolition. These differences in the North and South produced unique skill sets in both armies, and consequently, resulted in more successful and resourceful Union engineering operations during the war. Between 1861 and 1865 the North engineered victory.
Author: Henry C. Dethloff Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 113693460X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 325
Book Description
Americans grow up expecting that in a time of need, their country can depend on its people for volunteer service to the military. Indeed, this has been a social and at times legal expectation for the citizenship of this country since 1776. Yet, since the end of World War II United States forces have been caught up in many long term military engagements, and the military aspect of citizenship has become an increasingly marginalized one in a world where only a minority of citizens even vote. Citizen and Soldier: A Sourcebook on Military Service and National Defense from Colonial America to the Present provides a useful framework and supporting documentary evidence for an informed discussion of the development of the American ideal of the "Citizen Soldier". Presented with insightful introductions and useful discussion questions, this concise collection of 27 primary documents takes a close look at the United States military and shows how it became entwined with the rise of American national identity.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Engineering Languages : en Pages : 44
Book Description
Presents professional information designed to keep Army engineers informed of current and emerging developments within their areas of expertise for the purpose of enhancing their professional development. Articles cover engineer training, doctrine, operations, strategy, equipment, history, and other areas of interest to the engineering community.
Author: Ian F W Beckett Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317322185 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 227
Book Description
The British amateur military tradition of raising auxiliary forces for home defence long preceded the establishment of a standing army. This was a model that was widely emulated in British colonies. This volume of essays seeks to examine the role of citizen soldiers in Britain and its empire during the Victorian period.
Author: Blaine A. White Publisher: Author House ISBN: 1468545450 Category : Self-Help Languages : en Pages : 213
Book Description
Serve your nation and challenge yourself by giving back to this wonderful nation which offers you and many others so many opportunities.
Author: Jonson William Miller
Author: Michael S. Neiberg
Author: Thomas F. Army
Author: Paul Stanley Bond
Author: Henry C. Dethloff
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Author: Blanche D. Coll
Author: Ian F W Beckett
Author: Blaine A. White
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