Dr. John Grenier is a historian that specializes in US military history. Dr. Grenier is a Lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force. He is also a professor at the Colorado United States Air Force Academy. The tile of the book is The First Way of War: American War Making on The Frontier, which means that Dr. Grenier is planning to explain how the American colonists shaped America and how the techniques and methods used in the wars in the Americas molded the modern American military. His introduction, Dr. Grenier recognizes English- Americans ways of war and their constant transformations, from their alienated from their mother country into Englishmen.
Dr. Grenier discussed the first way of war in the coming up of colonial America through the Creek War of 1813. In his introduction, Dr. Grenier examines the unique way America approached …show more content…
war. For example, he talks about Russell F. Weigley, an influential scholar, suggest that America made a singular military history. He lists several other historians and scholars that discuss the same types of topics so the reader will have a knowledge of what Dr. Grenier is going to talk about in his book. In the book Dr. Grenier talks about the way the American Colonists birthed the unique way of war. He offers the different way the Colonials go about their warfare. For example, early Americans created a military tradition that accepted, and encouraged courage attacks and the destruction of noncombatants, villages, and agricultural resources like food storages and crops. Often, these early Americans used tactics and techniques such as petite guerre in shockingly violent operations to achieve their goals of conquest. I like how in his introduction he explains what he is going to discuss in each chapter and gives the reader a summary of the chapters.
Dr. Grenier presents the history in chronological order, starting with 1607 (p21). First, he talks about how the colonists were trying to deal with the Powhatan Indians stealthy ways of war. And continues on with the colonists trying to stay alive from the other Native American attacks. He shows how ranger companies were led generationally with sons and grandson leading units their fathers and grandfathers lead. He then goes into the wars involving France and England, like the Seven year’s war, Queen Anne’s war, and King George’s War (pg38). He examines the French and Indian war and how Britain needed the American rangers and their petite guerre battle tactics, especially after General Braddock’s defeat. After General Braddock’s defeat, the British soldiers believed that petite guerre was not for soldiers, but that tactics was used for savages. Eventually, the British embraced petite guerre.
SKIPPING REST OF STRUCTURE 4 NOW!!!
The structure helps the argument, in my opinion, because it keeps showing example chronologically that the American Colonials keeps running into problems with the Native Americans, the French, and the British.
The structure also shows the development of the Colonists fighting like the British soldiers, with precision and uniformity, to using both British tactics and Native American hit and run tactics. The structure is what helps the audience follow the military’s changes and transformations. The scope of the book is clear, the reader knows what Dr. Grenier is going in his book. The strengths of this book are the historians he included in his introduction. For example, he used one the most influential historian, Russell F. Weigley, because he suggested that, “Americans have created a singular military heritage.” He also uses Carl von Clausewitz book, On War because, “This study offers an alternative understanding to Weigley's, one based on the proposition that war focused on noncombatant populations is itself a fundamental part of Americans' military past, indeed, is Americans' first way of
war.
The evidence presented on the book corresponds very well with the thesis he brought forth. For example, in Dr. Grenier’s thesis, he demonstrates the attitudes of the American fighters and the irregular way of war, or petite guerre. Dr. Grenier points out that the American Colonials did not experience the European, civilized, way of war because the conditions of the frontiers were different than the conditions of the in Europe, and Grenier makes that very significant to know.