This is the first of Professor Lurie's 2 volume treatise on the history of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, formerly, the U.S. Court of Military Appeals. Any attorney who has any issue pertaining to the evolution of military justice in the United States, who does not consult this book, has committed malpractice. Meticulously researched and thoroughly annotated, the author lucidly and cogently teaches the reader how both the UCMJ and the CMA came into being. More importantly for the practitioner, Prof. Lurie's work provides the "why." As he notes, "Never before had Congress created a civilian appellate court for the military."[p. 258]. This book traces the Legislative history, why Congress overhauled the military justice system, why they created the UCMJ, and why they created the CMA to be the federal court that would balance the tensions between military justice and discipline. These two books should be on every JAG's reading list.