Why read Jackson's Sword?

Book cover of Jackson's Sword: The Army Officer Corps on the American Frontier, 1810-1821

Book description

Jackson's Sword is the initial volume in a monumental study that provides a sweeping panoramic view of the U.S. Army and its officer corps from the War of 1812 to the War with Mexico, the first such study in more than forty years. Watson's chronicle shows how the officer corps…

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American history

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Why read it?

1 author picked Jackson's Sword as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Brian McAllister Linn

Author

Sam Watson’s two volumes fully integrate the US Army into the history of the Jacksonian Era. These works demonstrate the Army’s vital role in issues as diverse as populism, professionalism, federalism, military policy, and the controversial suppression, dispossession, and forced relocation of Native Americans. His extensively-researched work not only shows the Army’s diplomatic-police role, but why, despite the Jacksonian’s ideological opposition to a standing army, they made it so central to national policy on the frontier.

From Brian's list on The best books on the peacetime US Army.