PROLOGUE: On Being a Plebe (Part One), Annapolis, Maryland, Summer of 1982
INTRODUCTION: Trials by Fire: The Roles of Crucibles in Defining Elite Groups and Cultures
CHAPTER ONE: We Make Marines: Boot Camp at M.C.R.D. Parris Island
CHAPTER TWO: Kung Fu and Koans: The Shaolin Monks
CHAPTER THREE: Space Is the Place: The U.S. Astronaut Program
CHAPTER FOUR: Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ: The Knights Templar
CHAPTER FIVE: Knives in the Mountains: The Gurkhas
CHAPTER SIX: Our Mothers: The Dahomey Amazons
CHAPTER SEVEN: Honor and Fidelity: The French Foreign Legion
CHAPTER EIGHT: Crouching Dragons and Divine Wind: Japan’s Special Attack Units
CHAPTER NINE: An Offer You Can’t Refuse: Mafia Made Men
CHAPTER TEN: Great Tiger Sharks Swimming on Land: The Hawai’ian Koa
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Fiercely and Faithfully: The Swiss Guard
CHAPTER TWELVE: Doctor, Doctor: The White Coat Ceremony and Beyond
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Poor Widow’s Sons: American Freemasonry
CONCLUSION: Elites Everywhere: Crucibles in Context
EPILOGUE: On Being a Plebe (Part Two), Annapolis, Maryland, Autumn of 1982 through Spring of 1983
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SOURCES AND RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READING
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHORS