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 38
... carrying out a variety of roles , each requiring new technologies . Tactical air support required aircraft of a specific type , closely linked by radio to ground troops ; strategic bombing required sophisticated navigation technol- ogy ...
... carried all before them , perhaps as much because of the terrifying effect on ordinary human beings of the approach of a thundering herd of galloping horses as because of the charioteers ' arrows . At any rate , chariot conquerors ...
... carry was far too small to allow artillery to play any decisive part in naval battles . But on land , artillery mattered . Catapults clearly facilitated Alexander's conquests as well as those of his father , Philip . The Romans ...
... carried handguns in the Ottoman forces . The specifically Turkish cavalry tradition re- mained inimical , always.14 A second reason for Moslem ( and Chinese ) backwardness in exploiting the possibilities of gunmaking lay in the ...
... carried European seamen to all the trading ports of the world from the sixteenth century onwards.15 The great European discoveries drastically shortened reaction time among the world's regions . Hundreds of years had elapsed be- tween ...
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 |