Babbitt

Actually, Nock and those patrons wrote in the age of Babbitt. The folks who created The Nockian Society came a generation later, but the "spirit" of Babbitt (Rotary Clubs, etc.) was still strong.

Ancient versus Modern Armies

Bertrand de Jouvenel's On Power breaks down the alarming differences between pre-1789 armies and modern armies. He shows that the size of armies started to grow with the rise of republics and democracies. As people started to view the "nation" as their own (a public thing) instead of a private possession of the king, it became more natural for the people to die for it, so armies started increasing in size.

4.18.11

"Republic, respublica, by the very force of the term, means the public wealth, or, in good English, the commonwealth; that is, government founded not on personal or private wealth, but on the public wealth, public territory, or domain . . . the king or emperor does not govern in his own private right . . . ". Orestes Brownson, The American Republic (ISI 2003), p. 23.