Overview

For more than half of its existence, members of the Marine Corps largely self-identified as soldiers. It did not yet mean something distinct to be a Marine, either to themselves or to the public at large. As neither a land-based organisation like the Army nor an entirely sea-based one like the Navy, the Corps' missions overlapped with both institutions. This work argues that the Marine Corps could not and would not settle on a mission, and therefore it turned to an image to ensure its institutional survival. The process by which a maligned group of nineteenth-century naval policemen began to consider themselves to be elite warriors benefited from the active engagement of Marine officers with the Corps' historical record as justification for its very being. Rather than look forward and actively seek out a mission that could secure their existence, late nineteenth-century Marines looked backward and embraced the past. They began to justify their existence by invoking their institutional traditions, their many martial engagements, and their claim to be the nation's oldest and proudest military institution. This led them to celebrate themselves as superior to soldiers and sailors. Although there are countless works on this hallowed fighting force, How the Few Became the Proud is the first to explore how the Marine Corps crafted such powerful myths.

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9781682474686

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Well balanced and thoroughly researched, Heather Venable's study offers crucial new insight into how the United States Marine Corps truly shaped its institutional identity and made itself a permanent fixture in the nation's defense and the loyalty of its citizens. --Bradford A. Wineman, Professor of Military History, Marine Corps University

Heather Venable has written a well-researched cultural history on the evolution of the Marine Corps from being an outmoded 19th century anachronism to its inception in the early 20th century as one of the nation's elite fighting forces. Venable's research demonstrates that not only did the Corps have to convince the American public they had changed, but they also had to convince themselves. A must read for all students of Marine Corps history. --Charles P. Neimeyer, Ph.D., Author of War in the Chesapeake, Fleet Support Program, Naval War College Well balanced and thoroughly researched, Heather Venable's study offers crucial new insight into how the United States Marine Corps truly shaped its institutional identity and made itself a permanent fixture in the nation's defense and the loyalty of its citizens. --Bradford A. Wineman, Professor of Military History, Marine Corps University

Author Information

Heather Venable is an assistant professor of military and security studies in the Department of Airpower at the United States Air Force's Air Command and Staff College. As a visiting professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, she taught naval and Marine Corps history. She received her Ph.D. in military history from Duke University.

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