Jason Palmer

Ph.D. Student
dutchp@email.unc.edu

Major Field: Europe/Military

Advisor: Richard H. Kohn

Research Interests: My dissertation will focus on the differences between command in the Continental army and contemporary European armies. In 1775, the American colonies' situation called for a different kind of military than the professional British army they faced. An army composed of volunteer citizen-soldiers necessitated changes to traditional European recruiting practices, discipline, and motivation-changes, in short, to how George Washington commanded America's first army. When an officer issued the proper "orders of command" in a European "professional" force, obedience was implicit. Such was not always the case in the developing Continental army, forcing Washington to modify the command methods he knew into an American model. Forged between the hammer of its commanders' wills and the anvil of New England society, command in the Continental army outside of Boston represented a departure from Europe's professional forces.

My interests include the American Revolution, the history of technology and military history broadly defined.