The Mexican War, 1846-1848

New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc, 1974. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good/Fair. xxi, [1], 454, [4] pages. Illustrations. Maps. Bibliography. Index. Endpapers soiled, edges soiled. DJ wrinkled, soiled, and stained, piece missing DJ spine. This is one of the Wars of the United States series. Karl Jack Bauer (born 30 July 1926 - died 17 September 1987), was one of the founders of the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH) and a well-known military/naval historian. NASOH's K. Jack Bauer Award is named in his memory. Jack Bauer attended Harvard University, where he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948. He went on to graduate study at Indiana University, where he earned his M.A. in 1949 with a thesis on "United States naval shipbuilding programs, 1775-1860" and his Ph.D. degree in 1953 with a dissertation on "United States naval operations during the Mexican War." Jack Bauer worked at the National Archives as an archivist in 1954-55, then in 1955-57 was appointed an historian with the U.S. Marine Corps Historical Branch, where he worked on a volume of the USMC history of World War II. In 1957, he transferred to the Naval History Division, where he worked with Samuel Eliot Morison's staff in preparing Morison's monumental History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II. After four years as an assistant professor at Morris Harvey College from 1961 to 1965, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute appointed him an associate professor in 1965 and then professor of history in 1970, serving there for the remainder of his career. In 1977-78, he was visiting professor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Military, political, and diplomatic aspects of the conflict are interpreted using original source material. "Much has been written about the Mexican war, but this . . . is the best military history of that conflict. . . . Leading personalities, civilian and military, Mexican and American, are given incisive and fair evaluations. The coming of war is seen as unavoidable, given American expansion and Mexican resistance to loss of territory, compounded by the fact that neither side understood the other. The events that led to war are described with reference to military strengths and weaknesses, and every military campaign and engagement is explained in clear detail and illustrated with good maps. . . . Problems of large numbers of untrained volunteers, discipline and desertion, logistics, diseases and sanitation, relations with Mexican civilians in occupied territory, and Mexican guerrilla operations are all explained, as are the negotiations which led to war's end and the Mexican cession. . . . This is an outstanding contribution to military history and a model of writing which will be admired and emulated." -Journal of American History.