One of the many things that interested me about this book, were the dynamics of the enlisted military men that went into the Marines.  I found it very interesting the various backgrounds, and places of these men being brought together to occupy an island they knew very little about, much less the people who inhabited it. 

These men each one having a different history, and their own formed ideas from their upbringings, as well as all their own personal baggage to drag along, as Renda writes, “In addition to Quakers (Butler was surely not the only “fighting Quaker” in the Marine Corps), other men came to the corps with marked identities:  German, Irish, Slav, Polish, Serbian, Jewish, and others.” (59).  Renda goes on further to say, “For some, including President Theodore Roosevelt, this combination seemed just right. With a war raging in Europe, and U.S. Cities teeming with immigrants-between 1900 and 1915 alone.”(59).  But needless to say, it does not take long for the military to start being selective in their choices, and there is much more interest in recruiting native-born Americans (African Americans not among them) than recruiting some of these particular ethnic groups that they deem to be undesirable to join the Marines.  This is how we begin an occupation, with emphasis on race, class, and bias.