Shared Experience: Organizational Culture and Ethos at the US Marine Corps Basic School, 1924–1941 by Jennifer L. Mazzara. Marine Corps University Press, 2023, 421 pp.
In Shared Experience, historian and Marine Corps University teaching fellow Jennifer Mazzara examines the evolution of professional military education (PME) within the US Marines. In this monograph, Mazzara addresses the little known historiography of The Basic School (TBS) during the interwar era, filling the gap in Marine Corps history on basic officer education. The school, now located in Quantico, Virginia, is where all Marine Corps officers receive their training and development following commissioning. TBS is designed to instill in every Marine officer the fundamentals of being a rifle platoon commander.
Yet not every officer who has worn the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor has gone to TBS. In fact, it was not always known as TBS, nor was it always in Quantico. In exploring such details, Mazzara places TBS within the broader historiography of PME in both US and European military history, displaying how the Marines designed PME to meet the service’s needs by combining naval tradition with land warfare proficiency.
Mazzara states in her introduction, “This study primarily examines two things: the composition of the curriculum at TBS between the world wars and the experience and qualifications of the instructors assigned to TBS between the world wars” (8). In other words, this book differs from a traditional monograph of military history in that it is an intellectual history of military education through the eyes of the Marine Corps. The themes of military history, tradition, and innovation play a central role in this study, aligning with the Marine Corps Commandant’s Reading List—the list of recommended and often required texts for building a Marine’s personal and professional character—which lists heritage and innovation as the first two areas of emphasis.1
Mazzara relies on an extensive list of sources to support her study. For example, to discover the names and stories of those who attended TBS, Mazzara relied primarily upon the National Archives’ 1893–1940 muster rolls of the Marine Corps as well as various personal accounts from the Marine Corps History Division. The US Navy and Marines’ register of commissioned and warrant officers as well as the Naval Academy yearbook, Lucky Bag, provided other names. Through in-depth examination of these sources, Mazzara provides an apt comparison of officers that attended TBS with those who did not. Mazzara also consulted the Donovan Research Library at Fort Benning, Georgia, to understand the stories of the Marines who were trained by the Army, and not by TBS, in the interwar period. For the minute details of these Marines, she also turned to sources such as Ancestry.com and the Social Security Administration death index.
The book traces the development of the Marine Corps PME from its start. Chapter 1 first examines the history of PME, showing how the Napoleonic Wars influenced its development within the United States. Second, it addresses how professionalization, or the standardization of training, became the cornerstone of career advancement in the United States. Lastly, this chapter analyzes the influence of technological advancements pertaining to the US military during the early twentieth century. Following the American Civil War, the existence of the Marine Corps was questioned, with detractors seeing it as unnecessary. At this juncture in history, the Marines had a decision to make—adapt to justify its existence or adhere to its traditional role as shipboard security. Yet, as the following chapters reveal, military and technological innovation justified the existence of the Marines, constructing the foundation of a proud tradition. Through the lens of the Marines, Mazzara reveals a notable aspect of military history that should be understood by all militaries—that tradition is born from innovation.
Chapter 2 builds upon the development of TBS, which formally began as the School of Application in 1891 at Quantico, demonstrating how the curriculum evolved. At that time, the Marine Corps began to professionalize education in lieu of on-the-job training, reflecting adjacent professionalization in the civilian sector. Marines who were brought up during this period became the core cadre of the School of Application. The influences of the Army and Navy on Marine training are evident in the school’s emphasis on military history. The utility of military history was an idea expounded on at the time by Alfred Thayer Mahan and by the US Navy. Arthur L. Wagner’s Organization and Tactics (B. Westermann, 1895), which highlights that the fundamentals of military leadership could be learned through an in-depth study of military history, was required reading by 1900.
Chapter 3 examines how the Marines sought to define its role in a technologically advanced world while adapting its PME. The Navy’s reliance on coal led the Marines to develop a doctrine of securing coaling stations, giving birth to the Advanced Base Force in 1910. According to Mazzara, the purpose of the Advanced Base Force was to “secure or defend bases needed for coal-powered ships” (107). It represented a major step in merging naval doctrine with infantry tactics. Yet it was not the only doctrinal change of this time, as the Banana Wars (1898–1934) led the Marines to start developing ways to fight drawn out anti-guerrilla wars, or small wars. Additionally, manpower limitations sparked innovations in marksmanship and established the tradition of Marines as proficient riflemen.
Chapter 4 examines how Marine Corps officers began to further enhance their land warfare proficiency by enrolling in the US Army Company Officer’s Course at Fort Benning. This practice was undertaken to the extent that many TBS instructors in the latter interwar period were trained there. Chapter 5 focuses on how TBS moved to League Island, Pennsylvania, in 1924, to initialize the prioritization of training in the Advanced Base Force concept. This and other innovations undertaken in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—such as the Army’s utility as a training model—culminated with the implementation of the Fleet Marine Force Concept.
Chapter 6 further examines TBS at League Island from the 1930s to its relocation back to Quantico in 1942. In this chapter, the reader learns how innovations in the study of military history influenced the training and traditions of TBS. In addition to student-led briefings, students were given a reading list to encourage lifelong learning, forming the tradition of the present-day commandant’s reading lists. The original reading list is provided in the appendix, which is a noteworthy aspect of this work. Even after the school’s move back to Quantico in 1942, wartime demands necessitated the opening of more specialized officer schools; hence, in 1944, TBS was closed for the remainder of the war.
Chapter 7 focuses on the personal history of TBS by making use of the Brigadier General Ronald R. Van Stockum collection, underscoring how the evolution of TBS began with the School of Application. The search for branch identity culminated in Marines training to be part of the Fleet Marine Force. According to Mazzara, “The FMF concept,” implemented in 1933, “demanded that the Marines pass over water to reach the battlefield, but once on shore the fighting was done according to standardized techniques, familiar to any conventional soldier of the time period” (290). Essentially, this innovation blended maritime tradition and land warfare.
The book demonstrates how after years of development, TBS has earned its place in the evolving historiography of military PME—one inspired by the Napoleonic European armies. While Shared Experience highlights a gap in the history of PME, Mazzara emphasizes that given the aforementioned wartime demands, a work on TBS during World War II would continue from where she left off. Such a work would show how real-world concerns ultimately led to the closing of TBS partway through the war to focus on more specific officer schools vital to the war effort. Mazzara identifies these schools as the Officer Candidates’ School, Reserve Officers’ School, Field Artillery School, Ordnance School, Correspondence School, Command and Staff School, and Aviation Ground Officers’ School (271). To that point, a work on TBS during World War II should include chapters showing how these schools perpetuated the spirit of innovation and tradition present in Marine Corps history.
By reading this book, scholars will understand how the traditions of Napoleonic PME influenced the US military. Military officers from all branches and nations will gain an understanding of when and how training must continuously evolve to meet various needs throughout time. As the Marine Corps prides itself on consistent and strict standards, this book should be included in discussions on the relationship between standards and tradition. As Mazzara has shown, innovation and tradition form the shared experience of the Marines.
Ryan Neck
1 “2025 Commandant’s Professional Reading List,” Marine Corps Association, accessed 21 April 2025, https://www.mca-marines.org/.