Citizens and Soldiers

Why has the United States, unlike every other 20th-century world power, failed to settle on a durable system of military service? In this lucid book, Eliot Cohen studies the enduring problems of America's methods of raising an army.

Eliot A. Cohen is the Robert E. Osgood Professor at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.

Cohen's dispassionate and detailed analysis of the factors that shape military manpower policies is a scholarly contribution that not only aids our understanding of the political, historical, economic, and military factors that shape them but also informs us of key factors that need to be considered in altering military manpower policies in the future. Furthermore, the book is good reading.

Cohen's treatment of the aspects pertinent to a viable military manpower policy for a nation such as ours is evenhanded and well-informed.

The question of how far a nation should maintain a standing army, and how it should be organized, has nearly always been a controversial one. Eliot Cohen has ably woven the strands of this complicated problem into a well-balanced and well-organized book, and probably one which is as interesting as the subject allows.

This is security studies at its best.

An outstanding analysis of America's difficulties in settling on a durable system of peacetime military service. Citizens and Soldiers certainly belongs on the reading list of any course on national security policy.

A superbly crafted study of military service which must be viewed not only as fine political science but also as an invaluable starting point for future debate.

After myriad studies on military manpower policies this excellent study brings something new: a historical, philosophical and geopolitical approach that goes well beyond the policy issues of the day.

There is no single book to take the place of this one, nor have the means of raising armies been explained as clearly before. This should have an important place in the current defense policy debate.

Charles C. Moskos, Northwestern University:

A brilliant book, elegantly written. Eliot A. Cohen illuminates and then resolves the dilemmas of military service in America. Citizens and Soldiers displays a masterly command of history, political theory, and policy realities.

Citizens and Soldiers is a must read for all who are concerned with the common defense of our country.