Brian McAllister Linn

Ralph R. Thomas Professor in Liberal Arts and Professor of History, Texas A&M University

Bosch Fellow in Public Policy - Class of Spring 2014

Brian McAllister Linn joined the faculty of Texas A&M University in 1989 and is currently the Ralph R. Thomas Professor in Liberal Arts and Professor of History. A specialist in military history, imperial and unconventional warfare, and strategic thought, Linn received his BA from the University of Hawaii and his MA and PhD from The Ohio State University. He has taught at the US Army War College and has held fellowships at Stanford University, Yale University, the National University of Singapore, and the Guggenheim Foundation. A former president of the Society for Military History, Linn is author of two prize-winning books, The Philippine War, 1899-1902 (Kansas, 2000) and Guardians of Empire: The US Army and the Pacific, 1902-1940 (North Carolina, 1997). He is also the author of The US Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War, 1899-1902 (North Carolina, 1989) and The Echo of Battle: The Army’s Way of War (Harvard, 2007).

Project Description

Elvis’s Army: Transformation and the Atomic-Era Soldier, 1946- 1965

During his time at the Academy, Linn completed his book Elvis’s Army: Transformation and the Atomic-Era Soldier, 1946-1965 (under contract with Harvard University Press), the first scholarly monograph to look at the US Army’s military and social transformation in the early Cold War and how this new cultural context impacted American society. Linn examines the Army’s responses to the challenges of the postwar national defense environment, with its nuclear weapons, international commitments, personnel fluctuations, and the Soviet military threat. Turning to the Army’s indoctrination program, enforcement of discipline, and civil-military relations both overseas and in the segregated South, Linn also asks how and why the Army became the “school of the nation,” teaching American males not only military skills, but also religion, patriotism, and anti-communism. The public transformation of Elvis Presley, from the rock-and-roll rebel of Jailhouse Rock to the clean-living all-American of G.I. Blues, is indicative of the impact of Army socialization on American youth. Linn’s book promises to provide a comprehensive analysis of the transition of the Army from the force that fought World War II and Korea to one designed entirely for atomic war (the Pentomic experiment) in Europe, and subsequently to one focused on counter-insurgency in Southeast Asia.

Academy Activities

28 Jan 14

Elvis’s Army: Creating the Atomic Soldier in the 1950s

When Elvis Presley joined the US Army in 1958 it was an international event, with media coverage of everything from cutting his famous hair to European fans flocking to meet him. During his two years in uniform, Elvis was transformed in the public mind from the rock-and-roll outlaw to an all-America ...

Read more
Back To Top