Unlike most histories of the National Guard, Jerry Cooper’s Citizens as Soldiers: A History of the North Dakota National Guard examines the Guard not merely in its wartime context or in terms of military actions in which it has engaged but also as an integral element in the growth and development of community in the American West. From the Guard's early incarnations as social clubs or lodges, where members dressed in uniform, paraded, and held dances, through its gritty service in the Philippines and beyond, Cooper shows how membership in the Guard and later in the Air National Guard helped forge bonds of local, regional, and national identity.

Jerry Cooper is a professor emeritus at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. He is the author of The Militia and the National Guard in America since Colonial Times: A Research Guide and The Rise of the National Guard: The Evolution of the American Militia, 1865–1920, available in a Bison Books edition.

“A well-done, comprehensive study of a state military organization from its origins as a territorial militia during the American Civil War to the close of the 1970s. . . . Deserving of more than just a casual glance.”—Journal of American History

“The authors examine the North Dakota National Guard not merely in its wartime context or in terms of the military actions in which it was engaged but also as an integral element in the growth and development of community in the American West. They show how the Guard helped forge bonds of local and regional identity.”—Military History of the West