A Cheaper Sense Of Honor Summary

In the book A Proper Sense of Honor: Service and Sacrifice in George Washington’s Army by Caroline Cox, the author’s main point is to shed light on and provide examples of the divide between officers and enlisted men in the Continental Army of the American Revolution. The divide was very clear, and was in place in all aspects of their respective lives, the officers being higher on the totem pole, while the enlisted men were decidedly lower. The chapters of this book go into detail about specific aspects that show the division between how officers and enlisted men were treated: punishment, health care, death and burial, and the treatment of prisoners of war. Overall, Cox does a great job of explaining her main theme in depth, and gives readers

Hendrix for the University of Carolina Press, Hendrix has some complaints/critiques of the book that I find interesting. At the end of his review, he states that he was disappointed in the way in which the book was included. In the conclusion of A Proper Sense of Honor, Cox talks about how the enlisted veterans (not the officers) of the Civil War were not treated as the war heroes they rightly deserved to be treated as. Most of the veterans just went back to their previous lives of low social and economic status. Hendrix states that a more traditional conclusion, that restates the themes of the book would have been a better choice. “Sadly, its lack leaves the reader with a sense of incompleteness, significantly weakens what would otherwise be a strong work, and rather mutes the effect of the points the author wished to make” (Hendrix). I do not necessarily agree with his statement here. I find it to be boring or unnecessary to end a book by just restating the themes and information that the entire book previously laid out. I thought it was a good way to end the book, since it furthered her theme of the divide in treatment between enlisted men and officers, without explicitly recapping her