Bodies for Battle

US Army Physical Culture and Systematic Training, 1885-1957

Modern War Studies

by Garrett Gatzemeyer

Sales Date: November 5, 2021

336 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in

Hardcover
9780700632589
Published: November 2021

$39.95

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eBook
9780700632596
Published: November 2021

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Physical training in the US Army has a surprisingly short history. Bodies for Battle by Garrett Gatzemeyer is the first in-depth analysis of the US Army’s particular set of practices and values, known as its physical culture, that emerged in the late nineteenth century in response to tactical challenges and widespread anxieties over diminishing masculinity. The US Army’s physical culture assumed a unity of mind and body; learning a physical act was not just physical but also mental and social. Physical training and exercise could therefore develop the whole individual, even societies. Bodies for Battle is a study of how the US Army developed modern, scientific training methods in response to concerns about entering a competitive imperial world where embodied nations battled for survival in a Social Darwinist framework. This book connects social and cultural worries about American masculinity and manliness with military developments (strategic, tactical, technological) in the early twentieth century, and it links trends in the United States and the US Army with larger trans-Atlantic trends.

Bodies for Battle presents new perspectives on US civil-military relations, army officers’ unease with citizen armies, and the implications of compulsory military service. Gatzemeyer offers a deeply informed historical understanding of physical training practices in the US Army, the reasons why soldiers exercise the way they do, and the influence of physical culture’s evolution on present-day reform efforts. Between the 1880s and the 1950s, the Army’s set of practices and values matured through interactions between combat experience, developments in the field of physical education, institutional outsiders, application beyond the military, and popular culture. A persistent tension between discipline and group averages on one hand and maximizing the individual warrior’s abilities on the other manifested early and continues to this day. Bodies for Battle also builds on earlier studies on sport in the US military by highlighting historical divergences between athletics and disciplinary and combat readiness impulses. Additionally, Bodies for Battle analyzes applications of the Army’s physical culture to wider society in an effort to “prehabilitate” citizens for service.

"Gatzemeyer’s biggest contribution is his attention to the Army’s influence in shaping men, soldiers, and citizens through their service training programs and with civilian programs."—Army History

"Gatzemeyer provides a new approach to understanding military preparedness in war and martial culture."—Journal of Military History
"[Gatzemeyer’s] treatment illustrates the changing definitions of soldier, citizen, fitness, masculinity, etc. and preferred qualities at different times in both military and civilian cultures. Highly recommended."—Choice
“This wide-ranging and inclusive study reveals the US Army’s important role in fostering an awareness of physical education throughout the nation. Of particular interest is the wartime struggle between the Army’s established system and that of civilian medical and physical conditioning authorities. This is a work that reveals much about American military culture and why physical fitness became such a fetish in today’s armed forces.”—Brian McAllister Linn, author of The Philippine War, 1899–1902
“Garrett Gatzemeyer’s Bodies for Battle is a significant contribution that is likely to become the definitive text on this important subject for some time. Gatzemeyer provides many cogent insights into both the US Army and American society from the late nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries. Bodies for Battle is especially valuable in revealing the intersection of military issues, for example battlefield tactics, with cultural developments, for instance fears of dwindling masculinity. Readers interested in the US Army, physical culture, American society, and the long-standing and intimate relationships between them will profit from reading this book.”—William A. Taylor, author of Military Service and American Democracy: From World War II to the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
“An engaging and deeply researched account of physical training in the military and its intersections with popular fitness culture and exercise science. From bootcamp to the battlefield Gatzemeyer reveals the complex history of physically preparing soldiers for service.”—Shelly McKenzie, author of Getting Physical: The Rise of Fitness Culture in America
“Bodies for Battle skillfully investigates US Army training programs and philosophies from their late nineteenth-century origins through 1957 to reveal how military physical culture shaped not only soldiers’ physiques and general fitness but also broader ideals of manhood and citizenship. Drawing on a rich range of military archival sources, professional physical education journals, periodicals, and interdisciplinary secondary titles, Gatzemeyer’s meticulously researched study breaks important new ground for military history, gender studies, exercise science, cultural history, and American studies scholars.”—Christina Jarvis, author of The Male Body at War: American Masculinity during World War II