I think that the Prussian bit is overdone. For one thing, the Prussian government was not trying to create more obedient soldiers--it had ample & brutal discipl

I think that the Prussian bit is overdone. For one thing, the Prussian government was not trying to create more obedient soldiers--it had ample & brutal discipline for that--but literate ones. For another, it was the widespread literacy that US reformers were looking at.