This reader is designed for courses in American military history or as collateral reading in American history survey courses. It includes selections in the field from the colonial period through September 11, 2001-America's second "day of infamy"-that date after which the nation's armed forces have come face to face with challenges to America's security without precedent in the annals of their rich and colorful record of service to the nation. The editor has chosen 28 selections from the abundant field of military history in order to allow military history instructors to select subjects which best fit their approaches to the study of America's military past. Some are descriptive, some are analytical, and some are both. All provide the student with a close-up view of warfare, strategy, tactics, and command decisions that have shaped the country's rich and crucial military engagements on American and foreign soils and seas. In reading the selections contained in this volume students will become acquainted with a sampling of the writings of some of America's best known military historians, such as Thomas Fleming, Jack Bauer, Stephen Sears, T. Harry Williams, and David McCullough.They will also come into contact with the outstanding work of lesser known figures in the field, such as John K. Mahon, Perry D. Jamieson, Xiaoming Zhang, Norman Friedman, and many, many others, whose work merits high praise and promises continued exemplary research and writing in the years to come.