Taylor’s Book Required Reading at West Point

Dr. William A. Taylor’s Military Service and American Democracy: From World War II to the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars has been selected as required reading for every first-year cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, starting this fall.

Taylor’s book is one of five required texts for approximately 1,200 cadets per year in West Point’s new core course, History 101 The Army of the Republic: Leading Citizen Soldiers

West Point details that the course will “explore the Army’s history in its social, political, and cultural contexts. Particular emphasis will be placed on changing patterns of military service, the evolution of American military leadership, West Point’s role in developing a professional officer corps, the variety of the Army’s missions, the citizens’ view of the Army, and the Army’s place in a diverse citizen population.”

Military Service and American Democracy was originally published in 2016 and a paperback edition was published this summer to meet the additional demand at West Point.

Dr. William A. Taylor is Lee Drain Endowed University Professorship, associate professor of global security studies, Department of Security Studies and Criminal Justice, Angelo State University. He is a former Marine Corps officer who held posts in III Marine Expeditionary Force, Expeditionary Force Development Center, and Marine Corps Combat Development Command. He is the author of Every Citizen a Soldier: The Campaign for Universal Military Training after World War II, which won a 2015 Crader Family Book Prize Honorable Mention.

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