Men, Machines & WarWilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 1988 M11 30 - 219 páginas Using examples from the last two centuries, this collection of essays discusses the close links between technology and war. In the opening essay, distinguished historian William H. McNeill demonstrates the extent to which military technology has often led to differentiations among people, both within and between societies. The other studies examine various aspects of weapons technology, drawing on the history of the armed forces of Britain, Prussia, and Australia, among others. Some of these illustrate how the adoption of new weaponry frequently depended as much on national pride and party politics as it did on the purely technical merits of the weapons involved; that financial considerations became increasingly primary in technological developments in British army after World War I; and that decisions made prior to 1939 about the aviation technology to be developed for military purposes largely determined what kind of the RAF was able to fight. The chapter by Dr. G.R. Lindsay, the Chief of the Operational Research and Analysis Establishment at the Department of National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa, makes the case that, with nuclear weapons added to the scene, the impact of technology on international security has never been as great as at present, and that the competition of nations seeking the technological edge in weaponry threatens to destabilize the precarious balance that has existed since 1945. |
Dentro del libro
Resultados 1-5 de 18
... Civil War . And lurking in the background were the limited data avail- able on the effect of mass bombing . These , combined with Baldwin's dictum that the bomber would always get through , argued that the correct use of resources lay ...
... civil - military relations . The fact that the Owen was the choice of the politicians ( for a variety of reasons ) and not the choice of the military ( for a variety of other reasons ) meant that arguments ostensi- bly over ...
... civil society and government was the normal way to assure a modicum of cooperation in the field . The cavalry auxilia of the Roman legions , on the one hand , and the foot soldiers who accompanied medieval knights into the field , on ...
... civil engineering . Private inventors and en- trepreneurs rushed ahead in the first half of the nineteenth century , leaving the military further and further behind . Only in remote America , where drastic shortages of skilled gunsmiths ...
... civil en- gineering , as before , military ( or rather naval ) engineering became the cutting edge of advance in such diverse fields as alloy steels , turbine engines , electrical machinery , oil combustion , and servomechanisms.20 ...
Contenido
21 | |
Observations on the Dialectics of British Tactics 190445 | 49 |
The Royal Navy and Technological Change 18151945 | 75 |
The Influence of Technology on Airpower 191945 | 93 |
Artillery from 1815 to 1914 | 113 |
Technology Society and International Security Since 1945 | 153 |
Australias Owen Gun Story | 183 |
Index | 215 |