When the first edition of this highly successful volume appeared in 1982, the proponents of the "new" military history were just gaining full momentum. Their objective was to reach beyond the traditional focus of military studies--the flow of guns, combat, and tactics that influenced the immediate outcome of battles and martial conflicts, often with little reference to broader historical contexts. Believing that one cannot fully appreciate the Revolution without reckoning with the War for Independence and its effects in helping to shape the new American republic, Martin and Lender move beyond the deeply ingrained national mythology about the essence of the war effort, so neatly personified by the imagery of the embattled freehold farmer as the quintessential warrior of the Revolution. Then they integrate, not persist in keeping separate, the fascinating history of the real Continental army into the mainstream of writing about the nation-making experience of the United States. In the process of revising their now-classic text, Martin and Lender drew on their own work as well as the invaluable outpouring of new scholarship over the last two decades. Wherever necessary, they questioned previous arguments and conclusions to render a meaningful new edition that is certain to receive the same kind of positive reception--and widespread acceptance--that its predecessor enjoyed. Also new to the second edition is a bank of illustrations, a Note on Revolutionary War History and Historiography, and a fully revamped Bibliographical Essay, making A Respectable Armyessential reading for anyone enrolled in the U.S. survey or specialized courses in colonial or military history or the American Revolution.

Table of Contents:
Foreword VII Preface XI CHAPTER ONE: Of Lexington and Concord, and the Myths if the War, 1763--1775 1 Lexington and Concord 1 Of Standing Armies (Power) and Militia (Liberty) 5 Ideological Transmission 9 The Provincial Militia Tradition 14 The Tyranny of Standing Armies 20 Notes 27 CHAPTER TWO: The Republican War, 1775--1776 29 A Republican Order as the Goal 29 Regulars Versus Republicans: The British at Bay 33 The Adoption of a Continental Army 39 The British Military Counterthrust 47 The new York Campaign 52 Success and Failure 60 Notes 63 CHAPTER THREE: Toward an American Standing Army, 1776--1777 65 The Nature of the Continental Army 65 A New Model Army 69 William Howe's Campaign of 1777 77 The Saratoga Campaign 83 The American Search for Manpower 87 The Old Myth and The New Soldiery 95 Notes 98 CHAPTER FOUR: On and Off the Road Despair, 1777--1779 100 Valley Forge 100 Mounting Anger in the Officer Corps 104 Tables Turned: new Life for the Cause 111 The British Dispersal of 1778 119 Growing Internal Division: Army and Society 127 Notes 135 CHAPTER FIVE: Moral Defeat and Military Turnabout, 1779--1781 137 Dispersed Warfare 137 Patriot Naval Exploits 144 Financial Morass on the Home Front 148 The War in the Southern States 154 Treason, Pensions, and Mutinies 159 Sudden Turnabout: The Road to Yorktown 166 Notes 171 CHAPTER SIX: Of War, National Legitimacy, and the Republican Order, 1781--1789 173 The Yorktown Campaign 173 Formulating a Peace Settlement 181 The Newburgh Conspiracy 187 Transition to a Postwar World 195 Myth and Tradition: A Political/Military Settlement 203 Notes 210 A Note on Revolutionary War History and Historiography 213 Index 225 Illustrations follow page 136 Maps Northern Campaigns 34 Southern Campaigns 125 Clark's Western Campaigns, 1778--1779 140