George Barnett transformed the United States Marine Corps from an antiquated afterthought to a modern force with an international reputation. After a long apprenticeship as a junior officer, Barnett emerged as a pioneer of amphibious warfare. Leading the experimental Advanced Base Force Brigade at Culebra in 1914, he secured the Corps' survival by establishing its amphibious mission. Appointed Commandant the same year, Barnett prepared the Marines for service in Europe, overcoming opposition from the Army and Navy. Without him, the Marines would not have served in France during World War I. Barnett left the post of Commandant in 1920 and began dictating his recollections of 45 years of service, including his education at Annapolis, overseas service in Sitka, Samoa and Peking, and encounters with Robert Louis Stevenson, the Meiji Emperor and the Dowager Empress of China. This edition of his memoirs includes chapter-by-chapter analysis by the editor and provides an unrivalled look at the Corps between the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. Long mined by scholars, Barnett's memoir is now available to the public.

From the turn of the 20th century until the end of World War II, the United States Marine Corps fought a series of "small wars," starting in the Philippines in 1899, and ending in the islands of the southwest Pacific in 1945. Through this experience, the Marines perfected the prosecution of such wars in its famed Small Wars Manual, written for Marine Corps schools in the late 1930s. The present volume is a chronological examination of the various Marine expeditions in the Pacific, West Indies and Central America from 1899 through 1945, and of the lessons learned.

The planning that allowed for the successful amphibious landings at the end of World War II actually began during the 1880s as the Marine Corps sought to define its role in the new Steel Navy. Officers braved skepticism, indifference and outright opposition to develop an amphibious warfare doctrine, with each service contributing. From the 1898 war with Spain through the disastrous 1915 Australian landing to the successful World War II assaults in the Pacific and northwest France, this chronological history explores the successes and failures pivotal to the concept of amphibious warfare through the lives and careers of fourteen officers instrumental to its development. Profiles include General George S. Patton, Jr.; Rear Admiral Walter C. Ansel, USN; Lieutenant General John A. Lejeune, USMC; Admiral William Sims, USN; and Colonel Robert W. Huntington, USMC.

From the War of Independence through the dark days of the Cold War, the Marines have fought in all the nation's wars. Their readiness and prompt action at Harper's Ferry stopped John Brown's insurrection in its tracks. In 1917, as the "First to Fight" slogan demonstrated its electric effect, the 5th Marines sailed for France and joined up with the first convoy at sea, anxious to get on with the war. With courage, discipline, and typical small-unit initiative, the Marines triumphed at Belleau Wood, a victory that was to advantageously affect the quality and thinking of the Marine Corps ever after. Yet it is no accident that so much of the Marine Corps' fighting and expeditionary service has taken place between the major wars. Marines could be found detaining Abraham Lincoln's suspected assassins aboard the Montauk, conducting minor landings in Nicaragua or Korea in the late nineteenth century, or battling rebels in Haiti or Cuba in the twentieth century. Their flexibility and adaptability has earned them a solid reputation as a preeminent fighting force. Their contributions to America's military force have been many. Development of amphibious warfare during World War II was undoubtedly one of the most important tactical innovations in our history. As larger military services are reduced between wars, the Corps' traditional role as "a force in readiness" becomes more essential for peacetime strength. And when the Marines are called to action, their preparedness and effectiveness as a maritime fighting team is unequaled.

A hard-hitting biography of the thirteenth commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.