Publisher's Synopsis
"The National Guard is often portrayed as the modern heir to the colonial militia and retaining at least three of the latter's defining attributes - a key instrument of American national security, a check on federal power, and home of today's 'citizen soldiers.' This report explores how the term citizen soldier has been defined in academic literature - as compulsory, universal, legitimate service by civilians - and then looks at how the National Guard has evinced these attributes at various periods in its history. Since the United States' founding, the militia - and later, the National Guard - slowly evolved into an increasingly formidable warfighting force and increasingly important tool for national security. This evolution, however, has come at the expense of two other attributes of the colonial militia - serving as a check on federal power and filling its ranks with citizen soldiers. The report concludes that there are inherent and
