military

Coffman has written an excellent social history of the American army from 1900 to 1940 that puts an emphasis on the educational development of the officer corps. In 1900 a large percentage of the officer corps were from the civil war era and had no interest in further intellectual development, but this changed with an introduction of new junior officers who were educated at Fort Leavanworth, Fort Benning, and the Army War College. These schools encouraged personal intiative in officers and the new study of new technologies such as tanks and airplanes. As a result this new class of officers intellectual interest was the development of the Air Corps and armor in the army.
Coffman also writes about how the army was divided along class and racial lines. The families of officers and enlisted men very rarely intermingled with each other, and officer families only married other officer families and not enlisted men. However some enlisted men such as James Gavin rose to become a general. The army was also divided along race with blacks being gradually eased out of frontline service from 1900 to 1940 and the few black officers such as Benjamin Davis were constantly harassed through their time of duty. This is outstanding book about the American army from 1900-1940 and should be read with the books by Brian Linn.