Books by "Robert W. Coakley"
7 books found
Between 1815-1860, the tiny American army took on many new and often daunting tasks. In the face of civil opposition to the very existence of a professional military, the first battle officers and supporters had to win after 1815 was that of simply preserving some small professional force. As American interests expanded further west and conflict with Native Americans increased, the army was charged with the dual responsibility of peacekeeper and conqueror. Its most dramatic successes, however, came during the Mexican War and the conquest of the American Southwest. Against this back drop, Wetteman crafts a narrative overview of the rivalries, personalities, and events that defined civil-military relations during this era. Beginning in 1815, the U.S. Army struggled for existence within a society that was not convinced that a standing army was worth the expense. At the same time, many questioned the viability of a professional officer corps, citing the innate ability of the American fighting man as demonstrated in earlier conflicts. Although efforts were undertaken early on to define the role and status of a peacetime army, issues of national defense, domestic security, Indian policy, and internal improvements shaped civil military relations over the next 4 12 decades. While the true position of the citizen-soldier in relation to a standing army had not been clearly defined by 1860, the nation had made giant strides towards full acceptance of the idea that the U.S. Army, a standing force commanded by military professionals, was a national necessity.
In Boundless Faith, the first book to look systematically at American Christianity in relation to globalization, Robert Wuthnow shows that American Christianity is increasingly influenced by globalization and is, in turn, playing a larger role in other countries and in U.S. policies and programs abroad. These changes, he argues, can be seen in the growth of support at home for missionaries and churches in other countries and in the large number of Americans who participate in short-term volunteer efforts abroad. These outreaches include building orphanages, starting microbusinesses, and setting up computer networks. Drawing on a comprehensive survey that was conducted for this book, as well as several hundred in-depth interviews with church leaders, Wuthnow refutes several prevailing stereotypes: that U.S. churches have turned away from the global church and overseas missions, that congregations only look inward, and that the growing voice of religion in areas of foreign policy is primarily evangelical. This fresh and revealing book encourages Americans to pay attention to the grass-roots mechanisms by which global ties are created and sustained.
The secret and dangerous operations of Australia's Pacific War Catalina crews told for the first time. In March 1945 Reg Cleworth, a navigator on PBY Catalina seaplanes flying out of Darwin, went missing in action. No details were ever given about the incident that took his life, nor the reason his plane went down. For Reg's younger brother, Robert, the news came as a fulfilling prophecy. The last time they saw each other, Reg confided in Robert, 'I don't think I'm coming back'. Forty years later Robert decided to investigate what happened to his brother. What he uncovered was an extraordinary story of a covert Australian airborne mine-laying operation in cooperation with the US Seventh Fleet to disrupt the Japanese supply routes. One of the riskier and more dangerous RAAF undertakings of the Pacific War, secrecy restrictions were imposed on everyone involved. They were never formally lifted. Had it not been for a chance meeting that allowed Robert access to previously unopened files in the US national archives, this remarkable story may never have been untold. What he unearthed revealed the sacrifice and achievements of the RAAF Catalina crews and the vital role they played in MacArthur's strategic plan for the south-west Pacific. Absorbing, compelling and powerfully told, RAAF Black Cats is an important addition to our understanding of Australia's role in the Pacific War.
The Mormon Military Experience
by Sherman L. Fleek, Robert C. Freeman
2023 · University Press of Kansas
The Mormon military experience is unique in American history. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is the only denomination to field military units for its own support and purpose rather than national interests, an effort which began in Missouri in 1838 and lasted through the Spanish American War of 1898. From World War I onward, however, the military exceptionalism of the LDS Church faded and Mormon soldiers came to serve national interests as loyal citizens alongside their fellow Americans. The Mormon Military Experience: 1838 to the Cold War is the first book to present a historical overview of the Mormon military experience. Sherman Fleek and Robert Freeman tell this unique story of how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has experienced war and military service and of their teachings concerning participation in armed conflict. The LDS Church’s distinct relationship between religious life and military service is rooted in its adherence to the Book of Mormon and its unique doctrine based in ancient and then-modern revelations from church leaders. Religious and military exceptionalism went hand in hand during the nineteenth century, when LDS Church leaders dictated when and how members would serve in armed conflict. Mormon militiamen were often more loyal to church interests and the guidance of LDS leaders than they were to government policy, from mustering of the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican War to orchestrating the armed effort during the Utah War of 1857–1858 to serving as Civil War volunteers in the West. Similarly, they followed Church leaders’ teachings not to serve in the Civil War’s bloody campaigns in the East. While LDS leaders adapted church practices and policies to support national objectives at times, there were also occasions when Mormon militia units defied state and federal military forces, sometimes to the point of open combat. No other American denomination has done this. This is a story about changing loyalties: as the LDS Church transformed from a personalist religious movement on the edge of society to a mainstay of American religious and political life, Mormons have moved from battling the US military to serving with distinction within it.
“A rigorously researched, richly etched re-creation of the formation of the all-black Ninety-third Infantry Division, which fought in the Pacific theater.” —Journal of American History This fascinating history shows how African-American military men and women seized their dignity through barracks culture and community politics during and after World War II. Drawing on oral testimony, unpublished correspondence, archival records, memoirs, and diaries, Robert F. Jefferson explores the curious contradiction of war-effort idealism and entrenched discrimination through the experiences of the 93rd Infantry Division. Led by white officers and presumably unable to fight—and with the army taking great pains to regulate contact between black soldiers and local women—the division was largely relegated to support roles during the advance on the Philippines, seeing action only later in the war when U.S. officials found it unavoidable. Jefferson discusses racial policy within the War Department, examines the lives and morale of black GIs and their families, documents the debate over the deployment of black troops, and focuses on how the soldiers’ wartime experiences reshaped their perspectives on race and citizenship in America. He finds in these men and their families incredible resilience in the face of racism at war and at home and shows how their hopes for the future provided a blueprint for America’s postwar civil rights struggles. Integrating social history and civil rights movement studies, Fighting for Hope examines the ways in which political meaning and identity were reflected in the aspirations of these black GIs and their role in transforming the face of America. “A marvelous book.” —Annals of Iowa
Family Quarrels in the Dutch Reformed Churches in the Nineteenth Century
by Robert P. Swierenga, Elton J. Bruins
1999 · Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Volume 32 in the HSRCA series chronicles the internal quarrels that have occurred in RCA history, particularly the landmark secessions that occurred in 1850, 1857, and 1882. While exploring the unity and disunity that have characterized the RCA since the Dutch immigration to the United States, this study also points out the righteous motivations that lay behind these struggles and shows how these historic quarrels have their counterpart in contemporary debates over the ordination of women and the church's acceptance of homosexuals.