The Other American Way of War: Unlimited and Irregular Warfare in the Colonial Military Tradition

Abstract

This dissertation examines the evolution of an Anglo-American pattern of unlimited-irregular war over the colonial and revolutionary periods. War against noncombatants emerged as a central part of American warcraft in the seventeenth century. Starting with the first settlers wars against the Indians first Englishmen, then Anglo-Americans, and finally Americans built a tradition of unlimited war that focused on the destruction of enemy populations. Over the course of the colonial period Anglo-Americans found that waging what contemporaries called petite guerre (little war), or what today we call irregular war, offered an effective tool with which to conduct unlimited wars.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 26, 1999
Accession Number
ADA366406

Entities

People

  • John E. Grenier

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Asymmetric Warfare
  • Birds
  • Civil War
  • Employment
  • Geography
  • Health Services
  • Military History
  • Military Operations
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • Native Americans
  • New England
  • Personnel Management
  • Terrain
  • United States
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • History

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.