The Progressive Army: US Army Command and Administration, 1870–1914

The author seeks to explain the creation of a modern American Army in a country hostile to centralised military power. The effect of various European nations on the US military are examined. The central theme, however, is how a small number of influential figures impressed with US business borrowed management techniques from national corporations to modernise the army. It is argued these military reforms represented a wider influence in the progressive era which sought to utilise management techniques developed by US business to improve government.