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The role of the citizen soldier in American military history is analysed, including an overview of the work of writer and army reformist Emory Upton, noted for his criticism of the citizen soldier.

Historians have long contended that Emory Upton (1839-81) was a "militaristic zealot" whose anti-democratic ideas caused generations of U.S. Army officers to sink into "Uptonian pessimism," a belief that democracies were unable to manifest a coherent military policy. This essay argues otherwise. First, it contends that Upton was not a militarist and that he intended his reforms to protect democracy, not undermine it. Second, it argues that the U.S. Army officer corps in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was not mired in pessimism, Uptonian or otherwise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]