The Military and Conflict Between Cultures: Soldiers at the Interface (Texas a & M University Military History Series, 50)

Rating:
Summary: Solid and Broad at the Same Time
Review: Editor James C. Bradford does the academic and professional military establishments a great service with the publication of this interesting and insightful collection of historical analysis of military establishments caught or placed between competing cultures. This is a work of serious academic style military history, there is very little of the popular 'guns and trumpets' material in the work. It will appeal primarily to those that seek to understand broader questions of military history, not the specifics of particular events.
The central idea binding the work together, albeit loosely at times, is that throughout history it has been soldiers, or warriors, operating on the respective boundaries of their cultures that have increased or decreased the friction between the cultures. Along the same lines, it is soldiers that sometimes are the primary determinants of how much of that friction is translated into violence. In the post-superpower world of the 1990s this is an interesting framework to hang a series of essays on military history upon. It almost guarantees the utility, intended or not, of the book for the professional soldier or defense interested civilian.
Bradford brings together nine historians for this book. Each is a specialist in their respective sub-fields of military history. The book is divided chronologically into 'The Premodern era,' and 'Western Forces and Indigenous Peoples,' and finally 'Twentieth Century Cultural Perceptions.' It is also initially divided along a thematic line, primarily focused upon the idea that if early military forces were in fact polyglot in content, then how could that military maintain any sort of unique cultural character? The essays in the first part, written by Dr. John Guilmartin of Ohio State and Dr. Dennis Showalter of Colorado College, explain how even in pre-modern military forces, the specialization of specific types of troops led to de facto segregation by function if not by organization. The second part of the book stays in the Western Hemisphere. American Western historian Robert M. Utley leads off by examining the nature of the conflict between American Indians and the U.S. Government. John W. Bailey deals with the schism between the intent of the American 'civilizing' mission in the West, and the reality of some very uncivilized methods by looking at the different styles of the general officers at work on the Great Plains in the late 19th Century. Finally, in studying South America historian Richard W. Slatta finds that in Argentina there was a dual struggle going on. One was the cultural elite trying to gain control of their own populace, and the was second that larger group of Hispanics seeking to marginalize and eventually exterminate their own Native Americans. In the third section of the book Douglas Porch recounts the methods of the French used in northwest Africa while Carol Petillo looks at the effects of 50 years of Philippine involvement and its' effects upon the professional U.S. military. The closing essay by Robin Higham deals with the topic of intercultural command.
We need look no further than the Balkans, or Somalia, or Chechnya to validate the importance of this book. We are without any doubt, entering a new era where limited war is not only the most probable, but where it is increasing likely to occur between groups with unique cultures. At a minimum, there will be soldiers at the interface between cultures even if they are not necessarily at war. A reflective reader may therefore draw several useful insights from history from this work. Although it is somewhat more expensive than the normal work of popular military history due to the fact that it is an academic work, the cost is made up by the depth of the material. In all essays the writing is clean and free of excessive specialized jargon, and in most cases the footnotes serve double duty by adding depth through supplemental explanation. I would heartily recommend this book to any serious military historian.