Engineering Expansion

"With the publication of William D. Adler’s excellent book, Engineering Expansion we now have a comprehensive account of the army as an institution of state power from 1787 until the Civil War....Any scholar of American Political Development, institutional development, or military history will benefit from a close reading of Engineering Expansion. Students, in particular, will find Adler’s book to be an excellent guide to current scholarly debates in APD. Although many questions remain about the army’s role in early America, Adler’s concise volume should inspire further studies of this long neglected institution of American state building. As Adler demonstrates so persuasively in this fine book, it is time for APD to bring the military back in."—Perspectives on Politics

"William D. Adler’s impressive book is a vitally important contribution to the history of nineteenth-century American political economy and the early American state. Adler convincingly argues that the United States’ military was a driving force in the development of the national state, in the expansion of national boundaries, and in the dramatic growth of the national marketplace....Engineering Expansion makes a fine contribution to our understanding of American political economy, state building, and foreign relations through a detailed examinationof the Army. However much the military has been missing from the literature, Adler has successfully brought it back in."—H-DIPLO