Making citizen-soldiers : ROTC and the ideology of American military service / Michael S. Neiberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Neiberg, Michael.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Army. Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

United States.

United States. Air Force ROTC.

United States. Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps.

Armed Forces.

United States--Armed Forces--Officers--Training of.

United States. Army. Reserve Officers Training Corps.

Soldiers--Education, Non-military--United States.

Local Subjects:

United States. Army. Reserve Officers Training Corps.

Soldiers--Education, Non-military--United States.

Physical Description:

viii, 264 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2000.

Summary:

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 modem 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. Dining 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 ROTCs 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.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-250) and index.

ISBN:

0674543122

OCLC:

42289811