Description: West Point graduates transformed America's ragtag militia into a professional fighting army in the early 1800s. During the Civil War, both sides' armies were led by West Pointers, whose military training predetermined the conduct of the war.
Brief description:
Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh is assistant professor of history at the United States Naval Academy and has served with the US State Department on a provincial reconstruction team in Iraq.
Review Quotes:
"[An] excellent new study...[Hsieh's] broad military-historical treatment allows him to make an intelligent answer to the question which every Civil War historian has to answer: Why did it grind on for so long?"
-- "Weekly Standard"