The Sword of the Republic: The United States Army on the Frontier, 1783-1846

by Francis Paul Prucha

Book Overview

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803287135
• ISBN13: 9780803287136
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 442 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

How the west was really won

This was required reading for a graduate course in the history of American military affairs. Francis Paul Prucha's book The Sword of the Republic: The United States Army on the Frontier, 1783-1846, focuses on the non-marital contributions of frontier soldiers, though this work shifts his focus from the `northwest' to the entire western frontier. Prucha's book is the first major work devoted to the notion of the frontier army as a multipurpose entity that served the federal government's expansionist interests. Prucha explains to the reader that his study is not a traditional military history in the sense that it does not focus on "wars and campaigns, strategy and tactics, nor organizational and administrative techniques." Rather, Prucha realized the need for a study on the "non-military services of frontier soldiers," and he contends these activities merit historians' attention because they "protected, restricted, [and] encouraged other enterprises on the frontier." This work also emphasizes the idea that the frontier army carried out the federal government's expansionist policies, particularly in the realms of technological improvements, scientific achievements, and in the general development of the West. This book is also significant because it expands on Prucha's assertion that the army's actions were "planned government policies to promote national sovereignty and accelerate settlement of the massive hinterland." Prucha, and later Michael L. Tate's The Frontier Army in the Settlement of the West, argues that the army's involvement in road building, the expansion of technology, agricultural experiments, and other non-martial activities were fostered and encouraged by the federal government. This was done so with the hope that Americans as a whole could benefit from these improvements Both Prucha and Tate do an excellent job of showing how vast the army's role was in the settlement of the West, and such arguments provide an excellent starting point for any who wish to explore the army in this context. Recommended reading for anyone interested in military history, and American history.

Hard to find, but worth the search

This is one I've been searching for, for several years. If you want a good, one volume work on the role played by the army during the pre-Civil War years, buy this book. One major item that is brought out is that troops on the frontier were used as laborers building roads more than actual military service. The conflicts among the officers as well as the politicians are covered as well. The bibliography is a gold mine of first hand sources