Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

"The Best School in the World": West Point, the Pre-Civil War Years, 1833-1866

1987; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 27; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/368591

1748-5959

Theodore R. Crane, James L. Morrison,

Diverse Education Studies and Reforms

Reviewsbling, drinking, and carousing.The work of women in providing a more civilized existence and programs of relief are also covered, as are army health conditions.Particularly good is Coffman's treatment of the background for the progressive medical advances made in the army to practice preventive medicine in relation to illnesses such as dysentery, diarrhea, cholera, and scurvy, along with the more dreaded diseases.The revolutionary advances in bacteriological medicine, antiseptic surgery, and sterile childbirth based on the work of Louis Pasteur, Joseph Lister, and Ignaz Semmelweis were mirrored in the pioneer work of army surgeons such as George M. Sternberg, Joseph J. Woodward, and Walter Reed.Even more revolutionary discoveries in the treatment of yellow fever and malaria would be made during the Spanish-American War and Philippine Insurrection.It is hard to imagine any historian seeking to cover the same research ground in the near future.Coffman has written a comprehensive work that will rank as the most important and informative treatment of the evolution of the United States army as an institution before the dawn of the twentieth century.The book should be read by everyone interested in the human factor in military matters.It tells of a body of neglected people whose services were so important that they deserve a paraphrase of Winston Churchill's message of praise for the Royal Tactical Air Force.Never in the course of human events had so much been done for so many by so few for so little reward.