Underdogs: The Making of the Modern Marine Corps

Awards:   Nominated for Ellis W. Hawley Prize 2013 Nominated for John Hope Franklin Publication Prize 2013 Nominated for Lawrence W. Levine Award 2013 Nominated for OAH Frederick Jackson Turner Award 2013
Author:   Aaron B. O'Connell
Publisher:   Harvard University Press
ISBN:  

9780674416819


Pages:   400
Publication Date:   01 October 2014
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

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Underdogs: The Making of the Modern Marine Corps


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Awards

  • Nominated for Ellis W. Hawley Prize 2013
  • Nominated for John Hope Franklin Publication Prize 2013
  • Nominated for Lawrence W. Levine Award 2013
  • Nominated for OAH Frederick Jackson Turner Award 2013

Overview

The Marine Corps has always considered itself a breed apart. Since 1775, America's smallest armed service has been suspicious of outsiders and deeply loyal to its traditions. Marines believe in nothing more strongly than the Corps' uniqueness and superiority, and this undying faith in its own exceptionalism is what has made the Marines one of the sharpest, swiftest tools of American military power. Along with unapologetic self-promotion, a strong sense of identity has enabled the Corps to exert a powerful influence on American politics and culture. Aaron O'Connell focuses on the period from World War II to Vietnam, when the Marine Corps transformed itself from America's least respected to its most elite armed force. He describes how the distinctive Marine culture played a role in this ascendancy. Venerating sacrifice and suffering, privileging the collective over the individual, Corps culture was saturated with romantic and religious overtones that had enormous marketing potential in a postwar America energized by new global responsibilities. Capitalizing on this, the Marines curried the favor of the nation's best reporters, befriended publishers, courted Hollywood and Congress, and built a public relations infrastructure that would eventually brand it as the most prestigious military service in America. But the Corps' triumphs did not come without costs, and O'Connell writes of those, too, including a culture of violence that sometimes spread beyond the battlefield. And as he considers how the Corps' interventions in American politics have ushered in a more militarized approach to national security, O'Connell questions its sustainability.

Full Product Details

Author:   Aaron B. O'Connell
Publisher:   Harvard University Press
Imprint:   Harvard University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 21.00cm
Weight:   0.358kg
ISBN:  

9780674416819


ISBN 10:   0674416813
Pages:   400
Publication Date:   01 October 2014
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

Reviews

O'Connell's depth offers military professionals, serious history enthusiasts and ordinary armchair buffs enlightening insights via easy-to-understand explanations of why the Corps always has considered itself unique and superior to the other U.S. Armed Forces...O'Connell patiently cuts through the origins of the USMC's cultural power, delineating its maneuvers, contradictions and effects on mid-20th-century American life...[Underdogs] deserves high honor and distinction.--Don DeNevi Leatherneck (10/01/2012)


Author Information

Aaron B. O’Connell is Director of Defense Policy and Strategy on the National Security Council and a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve.

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