The University of Texas at Tyler Libraries

Normal view MARC view ISBD view

Class and race in the frontier Army : military life in the West, 1870-1890 / Kevin Adams.

By: Adams, Kevin, 1975-.
Material type: TextTextPublisher: Norman, Okla. : University of Oklahoma Press, c2009Description: xvi, 276 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.ISBN: 9780806139814 (hardcover : alk. paper); 0806139811 (hardcover : alk. paper).Subject(s): West (U.S.) -- History, Military -- 19th century | Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.) | United States. Army -- Military life -- History -- 19th century | Soldiers -- West (U.S.) -- Social conditions -- 19th century | African American soldiers -- West (U.S.) -- Social conditions -- 19th century | West (U.S.) -- History -- 1860-1890 | West (U.S.) -- Social conditions -- 19th century | West (U.S.) -- Race relations -- History -- 19th century | Social status -- West (U.S.) -- History -- 19th century | Racism -- West (U.S.) -- History -- 19th centuryDDC classification: 355.00978
Contents:
The Gilded Age Army : men, money, and missions -- Ways of thinking : the mental worlds of officers -- Soldiers, servants, or slaves? : work in the frontier Army -- Worlds together, worlds apart : class and leisure culture -- Starvation and succulence : consumption in the Army -- Uncle Sam's gentlemen, Uncle Sam's slaves : class tensions in the Army -- "A promiscuous arrangement" : race and ethnicity in the frontier Army.
Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.
Item type Current location Call number Status Date due Barcode
Book University of Texas At Tyler
Stacks - 3rd Floor 		F594 .A37 2009 (Browse shelf) Available 0000001950401

Includes bibliographical references (p. 251-264) and index.

The Gilded Age Army : men, money, and missions -- Ways of thinking : the mental worlds of officers -- Soldiers, servants, or slaves? : work in the frontier Army -- Worlds together, worlds apart : class and leisure culture -- Starvation and succulence : consumption in the Army -- Uncle Sam's gentlemen, Uncle Sam's slaves : class tensions in the Army -- "A promiscuous arrangement" : race and ethnicity in the frontier Army.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Adams (Kent State Univ.) has turned his doctoral dissertation into an interesting book on the post-Civil War US Army in the trans-Mississippi West. The author uses the army, in fact, to understand the US of the Gilded Age in general. Basing his conclusions on the examination of quotidian routine (e.g., work, leisure, entertainment), he studied the letters, diaries, and official records that poured out of the western army in the late 1800s. Adams finds, contrary to earlier assumptions and findings, that the frontier army was divided more by class than by ethnic differences. A basically indolent and spoiled officer class, in his view, spent more energy shoring up their privileged status than worrying about the needs of their men. The enlisted soldiers, by contrast, were from the margins of society--recent immigrants, African Americans, and poor men from the cities--and they resented their lowly status and felt the first stirrings of poisonous class resentment, reflecting life in the larger society around them. This contribution to the study of war and society is one of the first to examine the race, class, and ethnicity of the frontier army, and it provides new suggestions for additional inquiry. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students/faculty. R. G. Lowe University of North Texas

There are no comments for this item.

Log in to your account to post a comment.