"The proud and the few" come to life in words and images in this new history of the U.S. Marine Corps. Based on extensive research and filled with more than two hundred illustrations, the book provides both a comprehensive, warts-and-all history of the Corps and a celebration of the inspiring exploits of this colorful and unique armed service. A retired Marine lieutenant colonel and a well known scholar - both accomplished authors and former history professors at the U.S. Naval Academy - teamed up to create this carefully balanced and detailed account, which covers not only the epic battles of the world wars, the harrowing struggles in Korea and Vietnam, and the triumph in the Persian Gulf, but also the formative years of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Readers will find gripping accounts of the Continental Marines fighting for American independence, the operations of both the United States and the Confederate States Marine Corps in the Civil War, the awe-inspiring, bloody struggle for Iwo Jima, and the legendary fighting withdrawal from Chosin Reservoir in Korea.In addition to describing battles and campaigns, the authors trace the Corps's sometimes stormy relationships with the Army and Navy, its fights for survival during repeated attempts to abolish it, and the development of the amphibious assault mission that became its hallmark. They also introduce the reader to men whose names are inseparably entwined with the Corps's history - Presley O'Bannon, Archibald Henderson, John A. Lejeune, Smedley Butler, and Chesty Puller, to name only a few. Many illustrations appear for the first time or are reprinted from rarely seen nineteenth-century sources. Historians and leathernecks alike will find much to savor in this lively telling of a classic tale. Read Less