| America’s
curiosity about elite military units is greater than ever
in today’s crisis-ridden world. And while numerous books
have examined the various elite forces, Bunker Hill to
Bastogne goes much further to show the relationship between
these special units and the societies that gave birth to them.
Though America in general has often regarded its military
establishment as an unfortunate necessity, elite formations
have nearly always emerged in moments of crisis. And while
their exploits have fostered the cherished image of the individualistic
but loyal rifleman-ranger, these legends have not always corresponded
to reality.
America’s
roster of heroic images has long included esteemed elite units,
running the gamut from Roger’s Rangers at Fort Ticonderoga
during the American Revolution to Berdan’s Sharpshooters
during the Civil War and the paratroopers of Normandy in World
War II. But despite Americans’ reverent regard for,
and patriotic depiction of, elite units, they initially distrusted
the idea of a standing army given such abuses as the quartering
of soldiers in citizens’ homes. Indeed, the egalitarian
American spirit caused the Founding Fathers to discourage
a class of emperor-making military elites. And yet, elite
units did emerge during every major American conflict. But
the evolution of such forces has taken place in fits and starts,
with units often demobilizing after a particular crisis had
passed. Only since World War II have elite units become a
consistently relied-upon arm of the military for dealing with
constantly erupting global crises.
Bunker Hill
to Bastogne is a unique and timely chronicle of the birth
and evolution of elite forces and the American public’s
reactions to them. It shows that despite Americans’
wariness of a possible military elite, their love of the fabled
rifleman-ranger has seldom dwindled, though in the twenty-first
century their hero might wear a green beret rather than a
coonskin cap.
Briton Cooper Busch, Ph.D., was a professor
of history at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York until
his death in 2004. His previous books include Canada and
the Great War: Western Front Association Papers and Mudros
to Lausanne: Britain's Frontier in West Asia, 1918-1923.
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