|
West Point’s near collapse in World War I was not repeated in World War II, but the academy faced serious postwar challenges.
Its persistent dilemma was balancing a four-year undergraduate education with the training
of professional military officers. The problem became acute after World War II as officers'
roles expanded into many nonmilitary areas at the same time that technical demands multiplied.
|
|
Maxwell D. Taylor (Class of 1922) became superintendent in late 1945. He updated and expanded the curriculum,
adding courses in the humanities and social studies, and brought in outside speakers.
But it was the 1956 arrival of Garrison Davidson (1927) as superintendent that began a
definitive new reform era. Davidson’s proposals and the ferment he initiated produced the
greatest transformation of the West Point curriculum since Sylvanus Thayer in the early 19th century.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
