Men, Machines & War

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Wilfrid 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.

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Contenido

Technology and Tactics in the British Army 18661900
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
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Página 95 - And the day may not be far off when aerial operations with their devastation of enemy lands and destruction of industrial and populous centres on a vast scale may become the principal operations of war, to which the older forms of military and naval operations may become secondary and subordinate.
Página xi - When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.' 'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you CAN make words mean so many different things.
Página xviii - Some trust in chariots, and some in horses : but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
Página 33 - Some of the nobles are much richer than the richest of our English peers ; and a vast number, as may be supposed, are very poor. To this poverty, and to these riches, are equally joined the most abject meanness, and the most detestable profligacy. In sensuality, they are without limits of law, conscience, or honour. In their amusement, always children ; in their resentment, women.
Página 155 - Blessed be those happy ages that were strangers to the dreadful fury of these devilish instruments of artillery, whose inventor I am satisfied is now in hell, receiving the reward of his cursed invention...
Página 51 - He presents to me in those red years the same mental picture as a great surgeon before the days of anaesthetics, versed in every detail of such science as was known to him : sure of himself, steady of poise, knife in hand, intent upon the operation ; entirely removed in his professional capacity from the agony of the patient, the anguish of relations, or the doctrines of rival schools, the devices of quacks, or the first-fruits of new learning. He would operate without excitement, or he would depart...
Página 97 - It is on the destruction of enemy industries and, above all, on the lowering of morale of enemy nationals caused by bombing that ultimate victory rests.
Página 96 - At present the moral effect of bombing stands undoubtedly to the material effect in a proportion of 20 to 1, and therefore It was necessary to create the greatest moral effect possible.

Acerca del autor (1988)

Ronald Haycock is professor of military history and war studies. He received his university education at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo and his doctorate from the University of Western Ontario. He is a former head of the Royal Military College’s History Department, Dean of Arts and Chairman of the War Studies programme. A former member of the editorial boards of the journals War and Society and Ontario History, he is currently on the Advisory Board of the Canadian Military Journal. He is a past president of the Canadian Military History Group and a member of the Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defence Academies. His previous publications include: [http://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Catalog/haycock-image.shtml Image of the Indian] (WLU Press, 1970) and Men, Machines and War (WLU Press). Keith Neilson is the author of a number of articles on British military history and Anglo-Russian relations. He is an associate professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and the author of Strategy and Supply: The Anglo-Russian Alliance 1914–17 (London, 1984).

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