War Machine
Title | War Machine PDF eBook |
Author | Daniel Pick |
Publisher | Yale University Press |
Pages | 308 |
Release | 1996-01-01 |
Genre | Technology & Engineering |
ISBN | 9780300067194 |
This intriguing study examines Western perceptions of war in and beyond the nineteenth century, surveying the writings of novelists, anthropologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, philosophers, poets, natural scientists, and journalists to trace the terms of modern thought on the nature of military conflict. Daniel Pick brings together philosophical and historical models of war with fictions of invasion, propaganda from the Great War, interpretations of shellshock and speculations about the biological value of conquest. He discusses the work of such familiar commentators as Clausewitz, Engels, and Treitschke, and examines little-known writings by Proudhon, De Quincey, Ruskin, Valery, and many others, culminating in the extraordinary dialogue between Freud and Einstein, Why War? He analyses Victorian fears of French contamination through the Channel Tunnel as well as the widespread continuing dread of German domination. And he charts the history of the pervasive European belief that war is beneficial or at least functionally necessary. A central theme of the book is the disturbing relationship between machinery and destruction. Visions of relentless technological 'progress' and the inexorable advance of the military-industrial complex often seem to distort our understanding of war, even to reduce it to a sophisticated game played out by high-precision automata. Pick explores both the reassuring and troubling aspects of such representations. Shorn of human agency or responsibility, war apparently threatens to become technologically unstoppable, the remorseless 'perfect abattoir' of the industrial age. War Machine explores the enduring historical fascination with - and recoil from -brutal mechanical slaughter, and the modern aquiescence in, and enthusiasm for (in Rilke's phrase), 'these days of monstrously accelerated dying'.
The Modern War Machine
Title | The Modern War Machine PDF eBook |
Author | Philip Jarrett |
Publisher | Conway Maritime Press |
Pages | 274 |
Release | 2000 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN |
Examines how airfare requirements have evolved since WWII, and how air power has contributed to military needs.
Britain's War Machine
Title | Britain's War Machine PDF eBook |
Author | David Edgerton |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 481 |
Release | 2011-09-09 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0199911509 |
The familiar image of the British in the Second World War is that of the plucky underdog taking on German might. David Edgerton's bold, compelling new history shows the conflict in a new light, with Britain as a very wealthy country, formidable in arms, ruthless in pursuit of its interests, and in command of a global production system. Rather than belittled by a Nazi behemoth, Britain arguably had the world's most advanced mechanized forces. It had not only a great empire, but allies large and small. Edgerton shows that Britain fought on many fronts and its many home fronts kept it exceptionally well supplied with weapons, food and oil, allowing it to mobilize to an extraordinary extent. It created and deployed a vast empire of machines, from the humble tramp steamer to the battleship, from the rifle to the tank, made in colossal factories the world over. Scientists and engineers invented new weapons, encouraged by a government and prime minister enthusiastic about the latest technologies. The British, indeed Churchillian, vision of war and modernity was challenged by repeated defeat at the hands of less well-equipped enemies. Yet the end result was a vindication of this vision. Like the United States, a powerful Britain won a cheap victory, while others paid a great price. Putting resources, machines and experts at the heart of a global rather than merely imperial story, Britain's War Machine demolishes timeworn myths about wartime Britain and gives us a groundbreaking and often unsettling picture of a great power in action.
The Spoils of War
Title | The Spoils of War PDF eBook |
Author | Andrew Cockburn |
Publisher | Verso Books |
Pages | 289 |
Release | 2021-09-21 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1839763655 |
Why does the United States go to war?—a leading Harper’s commentator on U.S. foreign affairs searches for answers. A withering exposé of runaway military spending and the private economic interests funding the U.S. war machine—for fans of Rachel Maddow and Democracy Now! America has a long tradition of justifying war as the defense of democracy. The War on Terror was waged to protect the West from the dangers of Islamists. The US soldiers stationed in over 800 locations across the world are meant to be the righteous arbiters of justice. Against this background, Andrew Cockburn brilliantly dissects the true intentions behind Washington’s martial appetites. The American war machine can only be understood in terms of the private passions and interests of those who control it—principally a passionate interest in money. Thus, as Cockburn witheringly reports, Washington expanded NATO to satisfy an arms manufacturer’s urgent financial requirements; the US Navy’s Pacific fleet deployments were for years dictated by a corrupt contractor who bribed high-ranking officers with cash and prostitutes; senior Marine commanders agreed to a troop surge in Afghanistan in 2017 for budgetary reasons. Based on years of wide-ranging research, Cockburn lays bare the ugly reality of the largest military machine in history: as profoundly squalid as it is terrifyingly deadly.
The Modern U.S. War Machine
Title | The Modern U.S. War Machine PDF eBook |
Author | Ray Bonds |
Publisher | Crown Pub |
Pages | 240 |
Release | 1987-01-01 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 9780517560976 |
Thoroughly revised and fully updated, this is the essential book for anyone wanting to know how the armed forces of the U.S. are organized and deployed after the recent Reagan build-up. Over 500 illustrations in full color and black-and-white.
Shadow of the War Machine
Title | Shadow of the War Machine PDF eBook |
Author | Kristin Bailey |
Publisher | Simon and Schuster |
Pages | 448 |
Release | 2016-02-02 |
Genre | Juvenile Fiction |
ISBN | 1442468068 |
"Meg has searched the globe for answers about why her parents were killed; where her grandfather disappeared to; and above all the identity of the man with the clockwork mask behind all of this treachery. At last, she has clues that will lead her to the shocking truth"--
Cromwell's War Machine
Title | Cromwell's War Machine PDF eBook |
Author | Keith Roberts |
Publisher | |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2009 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9781844158980 |
The New Model Army was one of the best-known and most effective armies ever raised in England. Oliver Cromwell was both its greatest battlefield commander and the political leader whose position depended on its support. In this meticulously researched and accessible new study, Keith Roberts describes how Cromwell's army was recruited, inspired, organized, trained and equipped. He also sets its strategic and tactical operation in the context of the theory and practice of warfare in seventeenth-century Europe.