Bibliographical references included in "Notes" (p. 469-517).

Introduction: National security and civil-military relations -- Part I Military institutions and the state: Theoretical and historical perspectives. Officership as a profession -- Rise of the military profession in Western society -- Military mind: conservative realism of the professional military ethic -- Power, professionalism, and ideology: civil-military relations in theory -- Germany and Japan: civil-military relations in practice -- Part II Military power in America: The historical experience, 1789-1940. Ideological constant: the liberal society versus military professionalism -- Structural constant: the conservative constitution versus civilian control -- Roots of the American military tradition before the Civil War -- Creation of the American military profession -- Failure of the neo-Hamiltonian compromise, 1890-1920 -- Constancy of interwar civil-military relations -- Part III The crisis of American civil-military relations, 1940-1955. World War II: the alchemy of power -- Civil-military relations in the postwar decade -- Political roles of the Joint Chiefs -- Separation of powers and Cold War defense -- Departmental structure of civil-military relations -- Toward a new equilibrium -- Notes -- Index.

An exploration of Huntington's conception of the officer corps as a professional body in the same sene as the bar or the clergy, acknowledging a responsibility to society as a whole and poessessing a sense of corporateness which excludes outsiders. These give it a distinct outlook and role which create the problem of civil-military relations.