The Royal Prussian Cadet Corps produced the élite of Prussia's and Germany's officers throughout its 250 year existence. Using a massive biographical database of its graduates, this unique study analyzes the education and socialization process in the school system during the Wilhelmine period. Moncure traces the conflict among the desire to maintain social cohesion in the aristocratic officer corps, the demands of the growing middle class, and the dictates of military competition in Europe. He offers insights into the attempts at resolution and the effects of the institution on the officer corps it produced.
"On the basis of painstaking research, Dr. Moncure tells us much about the ethos and the social milieu of the schooling of the German Empire's future army officers. He is particularly effective in addressing the uneasy convergence of aristocratic traditions and bourgeois professionalism. His information is solid; his challenging arguments are persuasive." (C. Earl Edmondson, Davidson College)
"This painstakingly researched study is the only account available in any language of one of the most central institutions of Prussian society: the cadet schools. Charged with reproducing the backbone of the monarchy, the Officer Corps, the cadet schools found themselves in the late 19th century increasingly torn between traditional, aristocratic values and the imperatives of technical efficiency characteristic of the industrial age. Combining quantitative with qualitative sources, Moncure gives a sensitive and thorough description of this changing institution and the experiences of its young charges in the years before the First World War." (Isabel V. Hull, Cornell Univerity) "It is an enormously industrious book, painstakingly researched using primary sources from German archives as well as interviews with former cadets." (Arden Bucholz, American Historical Review)
"This painstakingly researched study is the only account available in any language of one of the most central institutions of Prussian society: the cadet schools. Charged with reproducing the backbone of the monarchy, the Officer Corps, the cadet schools found themselves in the late 19th century increasingly torn between traditional, aristocratic values and the imperatives of technical efficiency characteristic of the industrial age. Combining quantitative with qualitative sources, Moncure gives a sensitive and thorough description of this changing institution and the experiences of its young charges in the years before the First World War." (Isabel V. Hull, Cornell Univerity) "It is an enormously industrious book, painstakingly researched using primary sources from German archives as well as interviews with former cadets." (Arden Bucholz, American Historical Review)