Mr. Polk's Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican War (review)

72CIVIL WAR HISTORY sections. In the process, he perhaps underestimates the extent to which unwaged labor fastened a fundamentally nonmarket society upon the Old South. Northern activists and Southern politicians, in his view, shared a collective—not disparate —Revolutionary heritage. Many specialists in the Revolutionary era may disagree. But one of the many virtues of Morrison's sophisticated theme is its adaptability; historians who suspect that the South always had interpreted the meaning of 1776 differently from the North precisely because of their peculiar institution can concur with the theory that both sides marched into battle secure in the belief that they were throwing off a tyrannical yoke. Given the imposing size and scope of this study, it seems downright churlish to suggest that Morrison should have included the voices ofwomen in his work. The use of recent studies on political rallies staged by Whig women on behalf ofparty candidates, forexample, would only have strengthened Morrison's theory of a thoroughly politicized citizenry. The author also overstates the extent to which the South industrialized in the years before the war. These are quibbles. Morrison's research is stunning. His footnotes—unfortunately placed at the end of the text and regrettably devoid of historiographical discussion—reveal research conducted in 405 collections in forty repositories and in 149 newspapers and magazines. Elegant, witty (mystery fans will note a good number of Sherlockian allusions), and learned, Slavery and the American West is the finest book written on the 1 850s since David Potter's classic study of two decades past. Douglas R. Egerton Le Moyne College Mr. Polk's Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican War. By Richard Bruce Winders. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997. Pp. xvi, 284. $34-95) Words such as "forgotten" and "neglected" may soon cease be to associated with the war between the United States and Mexico. As scholars uncover new material and present fresh perspectives, the war is gradually coming into greater focus. Still, there remains a tendency to view the conflict as part of a larger epoch—as either the close of the Jacksonian era or a dress rehearsal for the Civil War. And indeed it was both. But it deserves to be considered separately, as an event unto itself. With Mr. Polk'sArmy, Richard BruceWinders does much to achieve this. While fully recognizing the historical linkage, he manages to isolate the MexicanWar, to give it its own identity as a distinct chapter inAmerican military history. Winders, historian and curator of the Alamo, has devoted several years to developing a better understanding of American forces in the Mexican War. He offers this volume as an example of the "new" military history, concerned with the social, cultural, and political as well military aspects of theAmerican armies BOOK REVIEWS73 of 1 846 to 1 848. His study treats both regular and volunteer organizations, general officers and privates, to find that the army was truly reflective of its time. In the tradition of Bell I. Wiley, Winders explores the everyday life of the common soldier, revealing predictable complaints of arduous marches, bad food, and periods of relentless boredom. Officers expressed similar complaints. Throughout the war regulars displayed open contempt for volunteers, while volunteers had little regard for the professionals, especially West Pointers. Perhaps not so predictable, as Winders observes, was that many soldiers exhibited a keen political awareness. And this was a most political war. Whig critics condemned it as further evidence of Jacksonian expansionism, an effort to secure new lands for slavery. Democrats saw it, among other things, as a path to continued political dominance in the United States. The war gave President James K. Polk the opportunity to appoint loyal or influential Democrats as volunteer generals, and the rivalry between Whigs and Democrats became a major aspect of the war. But military victory in Mexico and the addition of vast lands to the United States, as it turned out, failed the Democrats at the ballot box in 1 848, when Polk's nemesis , Zachary Taylor, won the presidency for the Whigs. Winders ably describes the development of an American military establishment during a time of intense political turmoil and how it reflected the era. His...