United States Army Combat Developments Command, Report of the Field Manual Review Board Annex B, Evolution of the United States Army Field Manual: Valley Forge to Vietnam, Part 1

The modern military text, or field manual, has evolved over a period of several hundred years. Historically, military training literature traces its beginnings to the writings of the ancient Chinese, Greeks and Romans. Until the invention of printing and the advent of general literacy, military instruction was usually oral and not written. This history is of the evolution of the field manual in the United States Army from Valley Forge to 1966.