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. |
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... superior military technology has often allowed one society to establish its supremacy over another . The domination which western Europe established over societies overseas is instructive . In either case , however , technology has ...
... superior machines of war and denying it to others . Generally speaking , the beginnings of metallurgy had this differentiating effect . By the begin- ning of the third millennium BC , bronze swords , helmets , and shields , produced by ...
... superior field forces , simply because a besieging army , unable to find sufficient food and fodder in a devastated countryside , had no option but to withdraw . This strengthened local authorities at the expense of distant overlords ...
... superior to anything the Chinese had ever seen before . The Mongol assault upon the southern Sung Dynasty required them to capture fortified cities , one after another . The im- proved siege engines imported from the west were a ...
... superior field forces up against a rival's stronghold . But in the realm of Islam , which was almost as politically frag- mented as Europe , the same incentive existed without the same result . Why so ? What held the Moslems back ? For ...
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 |