Guardians of Empire

The U.S. Army and the Pacific, 1902-1940

By Brian McAllister Linn

360 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 15 illus., 3 maps, appends., notes, bibl., index

  • Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8078-4815-9
    Published: February 1999
  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-0-8078-6301-5
    Published: November 2000
  • E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-6848-0
    Published: November 2000

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Awards & distinctions

1997 Distinguished Book Award in American Military History, Society for Military History

A 1997 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

1997 Distinguished Book Award, Army Historical Foundation

In a comprehensive study of four decades of military policy, Brian McAllister Linn offers the first detailed history of the U.S. Army in Hawaii and the Philippines between 1902 and 1940. Most accounts focus on the months preceding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. By examining the years prior to the outbreak of war, Linn provides a new perspective on the complex evolution of events in the Pacific. Exhaustively researched, Guardians of Empire traces the development of U.S. defense policy in the region, concentrating on strategy, tactics, internal security, relations with local communities, and military technology.

Linn challenges earlier studies which argue that army officers either ignored or denigrated the Japanese threat and remained unprepared for war. He demonstrates instead that from 1907 onward military commanders in both Washington and the Pacific were vividly aware of the danger, that they developed a series of plans to avert it, and that they in fact identified--even if they could not solve--many of the problems that would become tragically apparent on 7 December 1941.

About the Author

Brian McAllister Linn, who was born and raised in Hawaii, is associate professor of history at Texas A & M University. He is author of The U.S. Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War, 1899-1902.
For more information about Brian McAllister Linn, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"Deeply grounded in primary sources and engagingly written. . . . The definitive work on the interwar US Army in the western Pacific."--Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

"Pioneering. . . . Fills the void and adds depth and understanding to American military history, Philippine history, and the story of Hawaii."--Philippine Studies

"A meticulously researched and well-written military history of a subject that has not been extensively explored. . . . Linn conveys effectively a sense of how the army at various levels understood its political, social, and military obligations and how the soldiers attempted to solve, bury, or otherwise reconcile problems inherent in policing and defending large, populous, and distant territories."American Historical Review

"A first-class piece of research; it is what is professes to be - a survey and a pioneering work, which will remain in use in libraries, staff colleges, and universities, and on the shelves of military buffs, for years to come."--War in History

"Superbly grounded in the sources, Linn offers thoroughly researched descriptions of the principal strategic and tactical issues--including their naval dimensions--character sketches of the antagonists, and an enriched understanding of interwar army planning.--Journal of Military History

"In this magnificently researched study, Linn puts forth a compelling argument that, contrary to popular interpretation, the U.S. Army was not caught unaware by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines in 1941."--Choice