The Scientific-Military State: How Enlightened Engineers Reinvented Early American Government / Sveinn M. Johannesson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jóhannesson, Sveinn M., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--History, Military.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago University of Chicago Press, [2026]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Argues that engineers influenced by French Enlightenment science built much of the machinery of Americas military state while redrawing the line between the federal government and society. In The Scientific-Military State, Sveinn M. Johannesson charts the emergence of a new kind of governance in early-nineteenth-century America: the scientific-military state. Federal officials used mathematics, science, and other forms of enlightened knowledge to launch the nations very first experiments in scientific education and expert administration. These figures forged a new intellectual elite that socially elevated itself above ordinary soldiers, workers, and civilians and reshaped the military state itself beyond familiar models of standing army or militia. Originating primarily from the US Military Academy at West Point, these experts, who were often engineers, debated statecraft, analyzed topography, designed fortifications, manufactured weapons, built infrastructure, and exercised military power as the United States spread across the continent. But the even deeper result was a transformed relationship between the government and its citizens, one that echoes today.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction

1 Enlightenment in Arms: From Mezieres to Yorktown

2 Archimedes in America

3 War and the Remaking of the Central State

4 Seeing Like Soldiers

5 Fortifying the American State

6 Engineering the Transportation Revolution

7 Contriving Conquest: A State Remade at War

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed April 14 2026)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-226-84764-0

OCLC:

1586297372