The story of the U.S. Marine Corps

by J. Robert Moskin

The story of the US marine corps is first of all, the story of men in battle - the story of individual courage - of men who risked everything to do what had to be done. Although no Marine ever started a war, the marines have been ready when called. Trained to kill, they are, in Stephen Crane's words, members of a "mysterious fraternity born of smoke and the danger of death.".
Chapters in this book include: The early years 1775-1902; WWI 1914-1919; Imperialism in the Caribbean 1901-1934; Getting ready 1919-1941; WWII 1941-1949; The Korean War 1946-1953; Tumultuous Times 1953-1965; The Vietnam War 1954-1975; In step and smartly 1975-; also included a section of maps.

Genres: Military Fiction, History

796 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up secondhand from a retired Marine who was done with it, just thought it might be interesting. It is rather dated, since the version I have was published in 1992, but as a history it was pretty interesting. It had some things that I hadn't heard of before, and did an interesting job of putting things in larger context rather than a bunch of unrelated incidents across the history of the US. Especially toward modern times there seemed to be more editorial comments, but it was never obnoxious, and another thing I noticed is that special attention seemed to have been paid to including the story of every single Medal of Honor winner in the larger story. Sometimes this made sense, sometimes it made the narrative feel disjointed. Overall, it was an interesting, if long, history.

[Tim Barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative history of the Corp.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

A more readable and entertaining history of the Marine Corps. It's not the dry textbook history that some people dread. This volume includes many interesting snip-its and stories that make the reading more entertaining. If you don't like dry history and are interested in Marine Corps History this would be the book I would recommend. Don't be dissuaded by the size of this volume, it is very readable.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very insight look at the history of the United States Marine Corps and why they have their superior attitude.