ABSTRACT
“Professional armies,” as Marcus Cunliffe writes in Soldiers and Civilians: The Martial Spirit in America, 1775–1865, “were undemocratic, un-American, and almost unnecessary: caste-ridden, cliquish, hidebound.” The anti-professionals were strong supporters of the citizen-soldiers who served in the volunteer militia, on the one hand, and elitist volunteer regiments on the other. Most militia volunteers were militant and patriotic but suffered over the long haul from apathy and poor organization. With the exception of the South, finally, the anti-militarist tradition has been strong throughout our history. With no enemies on our borders and a great economic opportunity provided by the frontier, bourgeois and business values left no room for the military values of service and duty. In contemplating the technocratic minds who have seemed to be in control of our military establishment since the Second World War, perhaps Mahan was right after all, at least in his stand in favor of a broad and liberal education for leadership.
