Protecting women : US Army culture in the second US-Seminole war and the US-Mexican war / Justine Meberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Meberg, Justine, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mexican War, 1846-1848--Women.

Seminole War, 2nd, 1835-1842--Women.

Women--United States--Social conditions--19th century.

Women--Mexico--Social conditions--19th century.

Women--Crimes against--United States--Prevention.

Women--Crimes against--Mexico--Prevention.

Women--Crimes against--Prevention.

Mexico.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

"Recovering the rarely heard voices of immigrant soldiers, Indigenous women, and Mexican women alongside officers' narratives, this book richly portrays the US Army at war in Florida and Mexico. Its unique focus on interactions between the army and local women uncovers army culture's gendered foundations. Countering an almost exclusively officer-focused historiography, it amasses enlisted men's accounts to describe what life was like for ordinary soldiers, show how enlisted men participated in and shaped army culture, and demonstrate how officers wrote their reports to achieve specific ends. By piecing together scattered mentions of women from personal writings, military and civilian newspapers, court-martial proceedings, and official records, it also shows the wide spectrum of Indigenous and Mexican women's wartime activities. Army authors erased or reframed evidence of women's combatancy to bolster their status as women's protectors, but undoing this process reveals that even in the most understudied conflicts, evidence exists to tell women's stories"-- Cambridge University Press.

Contents:

Introduction : Army paternalists, enemy women, and US Army culture in wartime Florida and Mexico, 1835-1848

The dilemma of army cohesion : West Point officers, immigrant soldiers, and the beginnings of an army culture, 1802-1842

Developing a logic of protection : Army debates on the treatment of Seminole women in Florida, 1835-1842

“Find where their women are” : The US Army’s pursuit of Seminole women, 1835-1842

Rescuing the enemy : Mexican women and the US Army’s transformation in northern Mexico, 1846-1847

A perfect sacrifice : The unexplored rape case that radically expanded military justice, 1847

Buying benevolence : Contested legitimacy during the US occupation of Mexico, 1847

“They were our best friends” : Army misunderstandings of Mexican women’s wartime activities, 1847-1848

Conclusion : Beyond men’s military history.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Cambridge University Press, viewed December 8, 2025).

Other Format:

Print version: Meberg, Justine. Protecting women

ISBN:

9781009647304

100964730X

9781009647274

100964727X

OCLC:

1552151883

Publisher Number:

CIPO000304578

CIPO000308096

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license