Soldiers and Scholars: The U.S. Army and the Uses of Military History, 1865-1920

"Owning" military history was important to the Army, Reardon maintains. Not only was military history a cornerstone in the Army's emerging education system, but it carried with it a professional image and social respectability as well.

As a result, the Army tenaciously defended the discipline from the incursions of civilian academics, arguing that military professionals should set the standards for the study of military history. The American Historical Association, on the other hand, countered that military history should not be left to amateurs.

In this well-researched study Rearson argues that the lengthy, unresolved debate over proprietorship of military history was largely responsible for its demise as a discipline during the half century following World War I.