The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders 1877-1945

The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders, 1877-1945, the second of three volumes on the history of Army domestic support operations, encompasses a tumultuous era-the rise of industrial America, with attendant social dislocation and strife, as well as the appearance of racial tensions caused by civil rights legislation intended to benefit African Americans. Clayton D. Laurie and Ronald H. Cole trace the evolution of the Army's role and its adherence to law while conducting these often unpopular operations, starting with the first major U.S. Army intervention in a labor dispute, the Great Railway Strike of 1877, and concluding with the War Department seizures of strike-plagued industries during World War II. Those planning and commanding today's irregular operations will benefit from studying this work.