Following Emancipation, many African Americans came to view military service as a crucial step toward the greater acceptance of blacks into American society and, potentially, toward complete citizenship. Military service demonstrated that the African American community was prepared to take on all of the responsibilities associated with full citizenship and verified that blacks were fully capable of serving as Regular Army soldiers, a role that had historically been reserved for white Americans alone. In 1866 Congress opened the ranks of the Regular Army to African Americans with the creation of four all-black regiments. These units were manned entirely by black enlisted men under the command of white officers. Although not legally confined to the enlisted ranks, African Americans were not expected or encouraged to pursue positions as commissioned officers. Many white Americans, including senior military and political leaders, did not believe that blacks possessed the competencies required to serve effectively as military commanders. In the late nineteenth century three exceptional African American men successfully challenged this notion. Henry Flipper, John Alexander and Charles Young became the first three black graduates of the U.S. Military Academy and the first black men to earn commissions as line officers in the Regular Army. Each of these talented men achieved success where countless others before them had failed. The middle class values and Protestant work ethic championed by their parents in their childhood homes shaped the way that Flipper, Alexander and Young viewed social issues and provided them with the greatest motivation to pursue careers in the profession of arms. While each of them earned the grudging respect of some of their white contemporaries, in the eyes of many, their race overshadowed their professional successes and weighed heavily upon any assessment or characterization of their service. Despite these challenges, each of these men served as role models for aspiring black youths and their successes helped to instill a sense of pride within other members of their race. These men remain important figures in African American history and continue to be a source of inspiration for many, both inside and outside of the black community.

Following Emancipation, many African Americans came to view military service as a crucial step toward the greater acceptance of blacks into American society and, potentially, toward complete citizenship. Military service demonstrated that the African American community was prepared to take on all of the responsibilities associated with full citizenship and verified that blacks were fully capable of serving as Regular Army soldiers, a role that had historically been reserved for white Americans alone. In 1866 Congress opened the ranks of the Regular Army to African Americans with the creation of four all-black regiments. These units were manned entirely by black enlisted men under the command of white officers. Although not legally confined to the enlisted ranks, African Americans were not expected or encouraged to pursue positions as commissioned officers. Many white Americans, including senior military and political leaders, did not believe that blacks possessed the competencies required to serve effectively as military commanders. In the late nineteenth century three exceptional African American men successfully challenged this notion. Henry Flipper, John Alexander and Charles Young became the first three black graduates of the U.S. Military Academy and the first black men to earn commissions as line officers in the Regular Army. Each of these talented men achieved success where countless others before them had failed. The middle class values and Protestant work ethic championed by their parents in their childhood homes shaped the way that Flipper, Alexander and Young viewed social issues and provided them with the greatest motivation to pursue careers in the profession of arms. While each of them earned the grudging respect of some of their white contemporaries, in the eyes of many, their race overshadowed their professional successes and weighed heavily upon any assessment or characterization of their service. Despite these challenges, each of these men served as role models for aspiring black youths and their successes helped to instill a sense of pride within other members of their race. These men remain important figures in African American history and continue to be a source of inspiration for many, both inside and outside of the black community.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, May 2010. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 4, 2010). "Edward R. Murrow College of Communication." Includes bibliographical references (p. 110-126).

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2005. / Thesis Advisor(s): Donald Abenheim. Includes bibliographical references (p.57-60). Also available online.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Denver, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 269-280).

This dissertation examines what constituted 19th century American military science, why it was framed within government policy and taught within the United States Military Academy, and how it became the early American way of war. The work uses as evidence a wide array of documents including biographical records of 2046 West Point graduates. It commences by explaining how military science has been reduced to near oblivion by two revisionist schools, the first regarding the lack of military professionalism in the antebellum army, and the second regarding how Swiss military theorist Antoine Jomini held a stranglehold over antebellum military thought. This dissertation challenges these interpretations. It tracks the evolution of military science from Enlightenment Europe to the United States during American Revolution and its relative obscurity until after the War of 1812. It then explains why a deliberate decision was made to transplant a French Napoleonic version of military science to serve as the curriculum of the military academy and to support the formulation of a national defence policy that called for militarized coastal frontiers and an “expansible army.” The work then follows how and why military science was modified during the period 1820-1860 in response to changes to the threats to the United States, changes related to state and federal plans for “internal improvements,” Indian wars, westward expansion, war with Mexico, and advances in military technology. Specifically it tracks how the doctrine of military science expanded from the teaching of specific Napoleonic applications to embrace subjects needed for war in North America. Inculcation in this American military science eventually came to provide the army with an officer corps that shared a common all-arms doctrine and common skill in using mathematics for military problem-solving. The majority of long-service graduates went on to spend years of their career fulfilling general staff, engineering, or academy instructor duties. The proliferation of military science through their work, and through published texts available to state volunteers, ensured that on the eve of the Civil War there existed a distinctly American, and scientific, way of war. / Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2011-07-28 18:19:10.639

Americans are curiously absent from the literature as forces in the black market prevailing in Germany after World War II. Aside from Rundell's study of failed currency control policy during the Second World War and the subsequent occupations of Germany and Japan, historians have failed to accord the American presence on the black market its proper status. They receive mention in narrative fashion, authors noting that Americans could make money on the black market, or relating a story about what a soldier bought or sold there. Then, like bit players in a movie, Americans recede from view, and Germans and displaced persons resume their places in the lead. This thesis has two objectives. Through support from the archival record, first, it demonstrates that Americans did in fact execute a specific function with respect to the maintenance and perpetuation of the black market - they were the market's suppliers. Second, by positing this role, this thesis attempts to correct a view of the black market as an essentially German experience, populated in the main by Germans and displaced persons. In so doing, I posit a schema of American illicit supply to Germans and displaced persons. This thesis argues that Americans operated as suppliers of illicit goods to the indigenous population. This supply occurred in three ways: Americans selling on the black market; misappropriation of materiel (usually food); and theft of goods from American installations. Furthermore, each type of supply was predicated upon the fulfillment of a certain condition. Americans sold on the black market when they were certain they could make a profit. Americans misappropriated US government property (usually food) as a consequence of a relationship with a German or displaced person; in practice, because those with access to American goods were young men, the relationships were only with women, and always included some gradation of intimacy. Germans and displaced persons committed larceny from American installations to procure goods for the black market, which insured handsome profits.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2002. / Cover title. "June 2002." AD-A406 050. Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-85). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 340-355). Also available on microfiche.