While there is nothing explicitly wrong with this monograph dealing with the social stratification of the Continental Army, and the treatment of the cogs within the machine, it does seem to fall somewhat short of the more enthusiastic reviews I've seen. For one, many of Cox's insights will not be so surprising to those who have read at length about the Revolutionary War, though the individual chapters on the processes of indoctrination, punishment, and the aftermath of battle all pull useful points together.

However, that there is no chapter dealing with the experience of battle really brings the value of this book down. To put it another way, with the author's main focus being on the treatment of the rank-and-file in the Continental Army, it's not clear to me that she understands the implicit bargain when one becomes an officer and a gentleman. That is to say, the special privileges accorded to the nominal men of honor are done so on the expectation that on the day of battle they will live up to a higher set of demands, and will do more then merely endure, they will lead, even if this means putting their own bodies on the line when their men baulk. This dichotomy of honor is not really dealt with in the work and to not do so almost misses the whole point of honor in a military environment.

Even if you wish to argue that the above point drifts too far from Cox's focus on the treatment of the enlisted man, I don't feel that she deals sufficiently with the more instrumental point of how social stratification is supposed inculcate distance between officers and enlisted men, so that officers will not flinch when making the routine lethal demands that come with battle.

Perhaps there will be a follow-up book about behavior on the battlefields of the Revolutionary War, and Cox will deal with these issues, but this monograph is more military history for sociologists, not military historians. ( )