Gilded Age Marines

ABSTRACT – A Course Irresolute: The United States Marines Advanced Base Force in the Age of Theodore Roosevelt 1898-1909   The Marine Corps is enmired in an existential crisis.  Forces beyond its control are pushing it to adopt new and novel missions, leading to a deep schism between those championing the status quo, and those interested in adopting innovation.    The progressive side of the argument is that the Marines must change in order to support the Navy, and U.S. foreign policy, in keeping with national naval strategy.    Conservatives charge that the changes that have  already been enacted will result in an irrelevance of the Corps, and an eventual dissolution — their appeal to lawmakers to prevent the changes from going forward has found its way through the press and hallways of Congress.    Hearings before the Committee on Naval Affairs, Subcommittee on Naval Academy and Marine Corps, begin today, Thursday, January 7, 1909.   A conventional reading of Marine Corps history pai