Ben Hebard Fuller and the Genesis of a Modern United States Marine Corps, 1891-1934

Historians of the smaller of the United States naval services have tended to dismiss or denigrate the career of the fifteenth Commandant of the Marine Corps, usually describing him as an avuncular and uninspiring sinecure holder. An examination of Fuller's tenure at the helm of the Corps at the time of the retrenchment imposed during the Herbert C. Hoover administration and the stimulus for naval growth that followed under the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration reveals an officer far more adroit than usually depicted.