"Presents a compelling case that the military, specifically the Regular Army, was the central force in creating the continent-spanning American nation in the nineteenth century."—Army History
"Wooster presents a thorough, nuanced, and convincing narrative of the U.S. Army as a truly nation-building institution central to the political, social, and economic history of the United States in the late eighteenth and throughout the nineteenth centuries."—New Mexico Historical Review
"An important book, and a model of scholarship. This study of the Army in America between 1775 and 1903 deserves the widest possible audience."—On Point: The Journal of Army History
"Wooster has written a thrilling synthesis of the army’s role in national history."—The Journal of Southern History
"[This book] deservedly will become a key text in the canon of the history of the U.S. Army."—Wayne E. Lee in War in History
"The argument that [Wooster] develops connecting armies with the state is also relevant in many other national case studies, and to American political life today."—Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"In The United States Army and the Making of America, Wooster provides a wide-ranging view of how American soldiers promoted the development of the country from its inception to the brink of becoming a global power. With this volume Wooster demonstrates why he is one of the preeminent American historians. Highly recommended."—Choice
"Wooster blends the economic, social, military, diplomatic, and political history of the army and its powerful influence of every aspect of American life as the nation’s largest corporate body in the nineteenth century."—Southwestern Historical Quarterly
“There is no one more qualified to tell the story of how the U.S. Army served as the key institution in the development of the American state than Robert Wooster, and The United States Army and the Making of America: From Confederation to Empire, 1775–1903, does not disappoint. While always keeping an eye on larger themes and topics in American history, Wooster cogently analyzes the personalities and policies that defined the U.S. Army’s relationship with the American nation from the Revolution through the Spanish-American War. In short, this is a study from which all students of American history will benefit.”—Kevin Adams, associate professor and chair of the Department of History, Kent State University, and author of Class and Race in the Frontier Army: Military Life in the West, 1870–1890
“The United States Army and the Making of America is an exceptionally well-balanced and thorough examination of the regular army’s role in the ‘nation-building’ of the United States. Robert Wooster is an expert in the western expansion of the nation, and this work again demonstrates his keen insights into the Regulars’ place in the social and economic development of the country and the often tempestuous relationship between the republic’s army and its political masters. This extensively researched work is an important contribution to the study of the U.S. Army in its first 125 years of existence.”—Richard S. Faulkner, author of Pershing’s Crusaders: The American Soldier in World War I
“Robert Wooster has gone beyond his remarkable The American Military Frontiers to write the definitive book on the army’s relationship with the nation during the nineteenth century. The United States Army and the Making of America demonstrates astounding research across all categories of sources. With Wooster’s attention to civilian perspectives on the army and the agency of army officers, this is the best exploration we are likely to see of national civil-military relations and the debates over the balance between regulars, volunteers, and militia in nineteenth-century America.”—Samuel J. Watson, professor of history, United States Military Academy, and author of Peacekeepers and Conquerors: The Army Officer Corps on the American Frontier, 1821–1846
“Robert Wooster’s fine new book takes a sharply fragmented scholarly literature and unifies it into a succinct yet comprehensive history of the U.S. Army from its origins during the American Revolution to the arrival of an American empire by the early twentieth century. Wooster shows how the U.S. Army played a crucial role in a wide range of nation-building activities, ranging from fighting Native Americans, fostering economic development on the frontier, battling other nation-states such as Great Britain and Mexico, defeating the Confederacy, governing the post–Civil War South during Reconstruction, and managing the beginnings of an overseas empire in the Philippines. While handling these varied duties, the army also negotiated a deeply ingrained suspicion of standing armies in American political culture. Briskly written and deeply researched, The United States Army and the Making of America will prove to be a valuable piece of scholarship for historians in hitherto disconnected subfields and an impetus for a more holistic understanding of the history of the U.S. Army.”—Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh, associate professor of history, U.S. Naval Academy, and author of West Pointers and the Civil War: The Old Army in War and Peace
“The United States is a country built and forged in war. The U.S. Army, as Robert Wooster deftly shows, played a foundational role in creating this American nation and empire. If you want to understand how the army helped make America, you need to read this book.”—David Silbey, associate director, Cornell in Washington, and adjunct associate professor of history, Cornell University
