The Citizen Soldiers : The Plattsburg Training Camp Movement, 1913-1920 / John Garry Clifford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clifford, J. Garry (John Garry), 1942-2014, author.

Contributor:

Organization of American Historians, contributor, content provider.

Project Muse, Content Provider.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Draft--United States--History--20th century.

Draft.

Military education--United States--History--20th century.

Military education.

Plattsburgh Barracks (N.Y.).

Military Training Camp for Business and Professional Men (Plattsburgh, N.Y.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (343 p.)

Edition:

New edition.

Place of Publication:

Lexington, Kentucky : University Press of Kentucky, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Citizen Soldiers explores the military reform movement that took its name from the famous Business Men's Military Training Camps at Plattsburg, New York. It also illuminates the story of two exceptional men: General Leonard Wood, the rambunctious and controversial former Rough Rider who galvanized the Plattsburg Idea with his magnetic personality; and Grenville Clark, a young Wall Street lawyer. The Plattsburg camps strove to advertise the lack of military preparation in the United States and stressed the military obligation every man owed to his country. Publicized by individuals who voluntarily underwent military training, the preparedness movement rapidly took shape in the years prior to America's entry into the First World War. Far from being war hawks, the Plattsburg men emphasized the need for a "citizen army" rather than a large professional establishment. Although they failed in their major objective-universal military training-their vision of a citizen army was largely realized in the National Defense Act of 1920, and their efforts helped to establish selective service as the United States' preferred recruitment method in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Featuring a new preface by the author, this new edition of a seminal study will hit shelves just in time for the World War I Centennial.

Contents:

General Wood

the beginning

World War I & preparedness

Plattsburg & 'our kind of people'

The Military Training Camps Association

The National Defense Act of 1916

The 1916 camps

The Plattsburg philosophy & universal military training

The MTCA & the war

Postwar policy & the National Defense Act of 1920

Epilogue.

Notes:

"Published for the Organization of American Historians"--Page before title page.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-315) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780813154442

0813154448

OCLC:

919103956