In George Washington and the American Military Tradition; Don Higginbotham investigates the interplay of militiaman and professional soldier; of soldier and legislator; that shaped George Washington’s military career and ultimately fostered the victory that brought independence to our nation. Higginbotham then explores the legacy of Washington’s success; revealing that the crucial blending of civil and military concerns characteristic of the Revolution has been variously regarded and only seldom repeated by later generations of American soldiers.Washington’s training; between 1753 and 1755; included frontier command in the Virginia militia; adjunct service to the British regulars during the French and Indian War; and increasing civil service in the Virginia House of Burgesses and Continental Congress. The result of this combination of pursuits was Washington’s concern for the citizen behind the soldier; his appreciation of both frontier tactics and professional discipline; and his sensitivity to political conflict and consensus in thirteen colonies in forming a new; united nation. When; in 1775; Washington accepted command of the Continental Army from the Continental Congress; he possessed political and military experience that enabled him; by 1783; to translate the Declaration of Independence into victory over the British.Yet; Higginbotham notes; the legacy of Washington’s success has sometimes been overlooked by generals concerned with professional training and a permanent military establishment; and therefore apt to revere foreign heros such as Jomini; Napoleon; and Bismarck more than Washington. Other leaders; most notably the World War II chief of staff; George Marshall; have recognized and implemented Washington’s unique understanding of civil and military coordination. In times almost wholly dominated by a military agenda; Washington’s and Marshall’s steady subordination of soldier to citizen; of strategy to legislation; recalls the careful consensus of thirteen colonies in 1776.
#1454165 in Books Wesleyan 1988-02-15Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.02 x .72 x 5.98l; 1.05 #File Name: 0819562173320 pages
Review
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful. This is a Volume to be Reckoned withBy Herbert L CalhounGeorge Fredrickson is one of the few remaining genuine heavy weights still writing on the issue of race in America. There are 17 essays in this book; grouped into three sections. The essays in Section One summarizes the intellectual history of race up through Reconstruction. Section Two does the same thing for the slave era; and Section Three attempts a cross-cultural analysis of slavery. The introductory essays do an excellent job of setting the stage for the reader in each of the later sections.The present volume argues for retaining the psycho-cultural interpretation as opposed to the more "Socialist-leaning" attempts to conflate racism and "classism;" a trend that is currently in vogue in much of the social and even sociological writings. I personally identify strongly with the point of view set forth here by the authors; since classism itself has a demonstrably clear racist component embedded within it.The question this book poses and attempts to answer in the affirmative; is: Does race consciousness constitute an independent variable in American culture?An alternative hypothesis is that since racism began with slavery--a European idea rooted in the economics of labor exploitation--it must thus be based solely on impersonal but rational calculations and on the economic circumstances that ushered in the slave era. Racism must therefore be a European idea transplanted to American shores where it remains today still alien to American instincts; values; mores; ethics and traditions. It is a facile argument indeed; but one made at times by both black and white scholars. However; a stronger; if not more compelling case can be made that even though racism was inspired by the European derived economic exploitation of slavery; it eventually took on an indigenous and a peculiarly devastating American life of its own. That American life of racism is still rooted not just in economics; but also in the psychological; ideological; cultural and social history and identity of white Americans. That this is an undeniable fact of American life is a conclusion difficult for any serious scholar to avoid. As George M. Frederick has put it: "... racism; although the child of slavery; not only outlived its parent but grew stronger and more independent after slavery's demise.The Neo-Marxists have tried; with varying degrees of failure; to fit American racism into the neo-Marxist made "procrustean bed" of the model of a Marxist economic class-struggle. As they have so well known; the fly in that ointment has always been that working class whites do not adhere to the mentality or ideology of the Marxist Proletarian model; preferring instead to identify with the corporate class that exploits them as much as they exploit the non-white working class; against whom they see themselves as competing against.This point of course underscores one of the more glaring gaps in the Marxist analysis: that it fails to take into account the overwhelming significance of race in the functioning of U.S. culture. Before the socialist class struggle model can be applied or analyzed in the context of American social life; it too must first be segregated along racial lines. As W.E.B. Du Bois pointed out in his Dusk of Dawn: "...the split between white and black workers [is] greater than between white workers and the capitalist." Serious analysts and scholars must be suspicious of any approaches that would subordinate the race question to class or gender questions--that is to say of those that ignore or leave unexamined the intellectual; cultural; and psychological roots of race prejudice in the U.S.It is true; as Du Bois has pointed out; that plantation capitalists relied on free black labor during slavery and very cheap black labor thereafter [and on other mostly minority labor throughout most of American history]. However; this system was legitimized by; greatly facilitated and sustained by; the racism and prejudice of whites who failed to benefit directly from the economic exploitation of blacks. The wages of the white workers was always only slightly greater than the built-in benefits of slavery. Frederickson quotes Du Bois as suggesting that even the planters themselves may have been motivated more by class interest considerations than by economic ones.No researchers can forget that racism still is a product of the American caste social order. This order; although affected by the means of production and the economic system; is still independent of it. White racism is; and always has been; an autonomous and independent source of social power and identity in America; free-standing from almost all economic concerns. This apparently is a difficult lesson about American culture for the Socialist thinkers to grasp. Were it not so; America would have long since developed a genuine interracial class-consciousness. It is racism alone that has prevented the development of an interracial class-consciousness; or anything close to it; or even a firm basis for it. It is thus clear (at least to this reader) that a hybrid interactionist approach offers the best opportunity to get at the underlying truth of black-white relationships in the U.S. Neither the Marxists dismissal of racism as uninteresting; nor the primordialists view that it is inevitable and a relative constant force of great potency; encourages a close examination of the role actually played by racial consciousness.Racial injustice is a distinct evil; much more heinous and insidious than normal capitalism inequality. As George M. Frederickson has said: Demoting people from the ranks of humanity on grounds of race or ethnicity; and treating them accordingly; is a sin of unique and horrendous character. In seeking to combat this malignancy we need to confront it directly and not simply subsume it under some other form of injustice or inequality.Intellectual discussion on race in America do not get better than this. Fifty stars.
