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More About This Title A Respectable Army: Military Origins of the Republic, 1963-1789, 2nd Edition
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When the first edition of this highly successful volume appeared in 1982, the proponents of the “new” military history were just gaining full momentum. Their objective was to reach beyond the traditional focus of military studies—the flow of guns, combat, and tactics that influenced the immediate outcome of battles and martial conflicts, often with little reference to broader historical contexts.
Believing that one cannot fully appreciate the Revolution without reckoning with the War for Independence and its effects in helping to shape the new American republic, Martin and Lender move beyond the deeply ingrained national mythology about the essence of the war effort, so neatly personified by the imagery of the embattled freehold farmer as the quintessential warrior of the Revolution. Then they integrate, not persist in keeping separate, the fascinating history of the real Continental army into the mainstream of writing about the nation-making experience of the United States.
In the process of revising their now-classic text, Martin and Lender drew on their own work as well as the invaluable outpouring of new scholarship over the last two decades. Wherever necessary, they questioned previous arguments and conclusions to render a meaningful new edition that is certain to receive the same kind of positive reception—and widespread acceptance—that its predecessor enjoyed.
Also new to the second edition is a bank of illustrations, a Note on Revolutionary War History and Historiography, and a fully revamped Bibliographical Essay, making A Respectable Armyessential reading for anyone enrolled in the U.S. survey or specialized courses in colonial or military history or the American Revolution.
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James Kirby Martin is Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Houston and is the author of many books, including the award-winning Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero: An American Warrior Reconsidered.
Mark Edward Lender is Professor of History and Chairman of the History Department a Kean University. He has written widely on early American military and social history, and his books include the award-winning Citizen Soldier: The Revolutionary War Journal of Joseph Bloomfield and Drinking in America: A History (both with James Kirby Martin).
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Foreword VII
Preface XI
CHAPTER ONE: Of Lexington and Concord, and the Myths if the War, 1763—1775 1
Lexington and Concord 1
Of Standing Armies (Power) and Militia (Liberty) 5
Ideological Transmission 9
The Provincial Militia Tradition 14
The Tyranny of Standing Armies 20
Notes 27
CHAPTER TWO: The Republican War, 1775—1776 29
A Republican Order as the Goal 29
Regulars Versus Republicans: The British at Bay 33
The Adoption of a Continental Army 39
The British Military Counterthrust 47
The new York Campaign 52
Success and Failure 60
Notes 63
CHAPTER THREE: Toward an American Standing Army, 1776—1777 65
The Nature of the Continental Army 65
A New Model Army 69
William Howe’s Campaign of 1777 77
The Saratoga Campaign 83
The American Search for Manpower 87
The Old Myth and The New Soldiery 95
Notes 98
CHAPTER FOUR: On and Off the Road Despair, 1777—1779 100
Valley Forge 100
Mounting Anger in the Officer Corps 104
Tables Turned: new Life for the Cause 111
The British Dispersal of 1778 119
Growing Internal Division: Army and Society 127
Notes 135
CHAPTER FIVE: Moral Defeat and Military Turnabout, 1779—1781 137
Dispersed Warfare 137
Patriot Naval Exploits 144
Financial Morass on the Home Front 148
The War in the Southern States 154
Treason, Pensions, and Mutinies 159
Sudden Turnabout: The Road to Yorktown 166
Notes 171
CHAPTER SIX: Of War, National Legitimacy, and the Republican Order, 1781—1789 173
The Yorktown Campaign 173
Formulating a Peace Settlement 181
The Newburgh Conspiracy 187
Transition to a Postwar World 195
Myth and Tradition: A Political/Military Settlement 203
Notes 210
A Note on Revolutionary War History and Historiography 213
Index 225
Illustrations follow page 136
Maps
Northern Campaigns 34
Southern Campaigns 125
Clark’s Western Campaigns, 1778—1779 140
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Praise for the first edition:
"A Respectable Army is an important book for several reasons. It reminds one once again of Washington's contributions to the nation in the 'new modeling' of the army and more particularly in the establishment of a tradition of civil over military authority. It rejects the historical mythology of a patriotic soldiery and demonstrates that, ironically, it was the unpriveleged classes who fought to preserve the liberties of all citizens. Finally, it compresses the 'new' military history into a compact, readable volume and thereby makes current scholarship accessible to a wide audience." (The North Carolina Historical Review, 1983)
"Clear in organization and style... Provocative reading, it should especially appeal to instructors anxious to engender classroom discussion." (The History Teacher, Spring 1983)
"[James Kirby Martin and Mark Edward Lender] have done their job well. Founded on a close reading of the most recent litrerature, A Respectable Army offers a cogent narrative of the social, political, and intellectual developments that shaped the Revolutionary military establishment as well as a fair-minded assessment of current historiographical controversies." (Journal of Southern History, February 1984)
