The Marine Corps' Search for a Mission, 1880-1898

"A fascinating look at one of those times when the Marine Corps struggled to exist."—Parameters

"[Shulimson] has produced a narrative that is very readable and an important contribution to the history of the Marine Corps."—Journal of Military History

"A model monograph, intensively researched and intelligently argued. Military historians will obviously find it valuable, but so should all students of institutional change."—Public Historian

"An important addition to the literature on military professionalism as well as a fine contribution to the history of the United States Marine Corps."—Journal of American History

"Will become known as the standard history for these critical 18 years when the Corps’ 20th century mission was first conceived and demonstrated."—Marine Corps Gazette

"A fine account of the struggle to create the modern US Marine Corps."—Choice

"The definitive study of the Gilded Age Marine Corps."—Allan R. Millett, author of Semper Fidelis: The History of the U.S. Marine Corps

"A lively recounting of the formative years of the modern Marine Corps. This book will be of interest and value to all historians of the United States Navy and Marine Corps and can be read with profit as well by anyone concerned with the process of modernization in late nineteenth-century America."—Graham A. Cosmas, coauthor of The U.S. Marines in Vietnam: Vietnamization and Redeployment, 1970–1971

"No other book is as detailed or enlightening on the question of the evolution of Marine Corps professionalism. . . .Includes some fascinating descriptions of Marine Corps life."—Carol Reardon, author of Soldiers and Scholars: The U.S. Army and the Uses of Military History, 1865–1920