Respectable Army The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763 - 1789

by Martin, James Kirby; Lender, Mark Edward

• ISBN13: 9780882952390
• ISBN10: 0882952390
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-22
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

When the first edition of this highly successful volume appeared in 1982, the proponents of the "new" military history were just gaining full momentum. This group of scholars sought to reach beyond the traditional focus of military studies -- the flow of guns, combat, and tactics that influenced the immediate outcome of battles and martial conflicts, often with little reference to broader historical contexts. Believing that one cannot fully appreciate the Revolution without reckoning with the War for Independence and its influence in the shaping of the new American republic, Martin and Lender moved beyond the deeply ingrained national mythology about the essence of the war effort, so neatly personified by the imagery of the embattled freehold farmer as the quintessential warrior of the Revolution. Then they broke with tradition again by integrating -- instead of keeping separate-- the fascinating history of the real Continental army into the mainstream of writing about the nation making experience of the United States. In the process of revising their now-classic text, Martin and Lender drew on their own work as well as the invaluable outpouring of new scholarship that has emerged over the course of the last two decades. Wherever necessary, they questioned previous arguments and conclusions to render a meaningful new edition that is certain to receive the same kind of positive reception -- and widespread acceptance -- enjoyed by its predecessor. Also new to the second edition is a new map, a bank of illustrations, a Note on Revolutionary War History and Historiography, and a fully revamped Bibliographical Essay, making A Respectable Army essential reading for anyone enrolled in the U.S. history survey or specialised courses in colonial or military history or the American Revolution.

Author Biography

James Kirby Martin is Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Houston and is the author of many books, including the award-winning Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero: An American Warrior Reconsidered.

Mark Edward Lender is Professor of History and Chairman of the History Department a Kean University. He has written widely on early American military and social history, and his books include the award-winning Citizen Soldier: The Revolutionary War Journal of Joseph Bloomfield and Drinking in America: A History (both with James Kirby Martin).

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Preface	xi
Of Lexington and Concord, and the Myths of the War, 1763--1775	1	(28)
Lexington and Concord	1	(4)
Of Standing Armies (Power) and Militia (Liberty)	5	(4)
Ideological Transmission	9	(5)
The Provincial Militia Tradition	14	(6)
The Tyranny of Standing Armies	20	(7)
Notes	27	(2)
The Republican War, 1775--1776	29	(36)
A Republican Order as the Goal	29	(4)
Regulars Versus Republicans: The British at Bay	33	(6)
The Adoption of a Continental Army	39	(8)
The British Military Counterthrust	47	(5)
The New York Campaign	52	(8)
Success and Failure	60	(3)
Notes	63	(2)
Toward an American Standing Army, 1776--1777	65	(35)
The Nature of the Continental Army	65	(4)
A New Model Rebel Army	69	(8)
William Howe's Campaign of 1777	77	(6)
The Saratoga Campaign	83	(4)
The American Search for Manpower	87	(8)
The Old Myth and The New Soldiery	95	(3)
Notes	98	(2)
On and Off the Road of Despair, 1777--1779	100	(37)
Valley Forge	100	(4)
Mounting Anger in the Officer Corps	104	(7)
Tables Turned: New Life for the Cause	111	(8)
The British Dispersal of 1778	119	(8)
Growing Internal Division: Army and Society	127	(8)
Notes	135	(2)
Moral Defeat and Military Turnabout, 1779--1781	137	(36)
Dispersed Warfare	137	(7)
Patriot Naval Exploits	144	(4)
Financial Morass on the Home Front	148	(6)
The War in the Southern States	154	(5)
Treason, Pensions, and Mutinies	159	(7)
Sudden Turnabout: The Road to Yorktown	166	(5)
Notes	171	(2)
Of War, National Legitimacy, and the Republican Order, 1781--1789	173	(40)
The Yorktown Campaign	173	(8)
Formulating a Peace Settlement	181	(6)
The Newburgh Conspiracy	187	(8)
Transition to a Postwar World	195	(8)
Myth and Tradition: A Political/Military Settlement	203	(7)
Notes	210	(3)
A Note on Revolutionary War History and Historiography	213	(12)
Index	225