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A History of Military Thought
From the Enlightenment to the Cold War
Azar Gat
904 pages
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216x138mm
978-0-19-924762-2
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Paperback
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08 November 2001
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- Collects together for the first time the author's ground-breaking trilogy on modern strategic thought.
From the ideas of Clausewitz to contemporary doctrines of containment and cold war, this is a definitive history of modern military thought. A one-volume collection of Azar Gat's acclaimed trilogy, it traces the quest for a general theory of war from its origins in the Enlightenment. Beginning with a provocative critique of Clausewitz's classic work On War, the author unravels the endemic difficulties in Clausewitz's work that have baffled scholars for so long, clearly explaining the development of his ideas against the background of the
Napoleonic revolution in war and the Romantic critique of the Enlightenment. He continues the story through the strategic ideas of the Prussian-German military school during the nineteenth century, the factors that shaped the 'cult of the offensive' in the French Army before the First World War, and the competing doctrines which dominated naval warfare during the ages of sail and steam. In the final part of the trilogy, he shows how theories of mechanized war emerged throughout the industrial world in the first decades of the twentieth century and explains why their leading exponents were associated with fascism. Drastically re-evaluating B.H. Liddell Hart's contribution to strategic theory, the author argues that in the wake of the trauma of the First World War, and in response to the
Axis challenge, Liddell Hart developed the doctrine of containment and cold war long before the advent of nuclear weapons. He reveals Liddell Hart as a pioneer of the modern western liberal way in warfare which is still with us today. Readership: Scholars and students of miltary history, international relations, and modern miltary and strategic thought.
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Azar Gat, Professor of Political Science at Tel Aviv University
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"Review from other book by this author 'brilliant synthesis of moden military and naval analysis...highly recommended.'The Historian"
"Azar Gat has certainly done much to rescue Liddell Hart from the clutches of his recent critics. His book, like its predecessors, is a formidable achievement./ Brian Holden Reid, TLS, 21/05/99."
"`Gat presents a great deal of historical and theoretical material in a relatively brief compass.'
Foreign Affairs"
"`but it is not on the military side of its university that Dr Gat operates, it is in the departments of history and political science ... And it is this which gives his work its depth and value ... he is above all a historian of ideas ... he has written a very good book ... The historiographical passages and bibliographical footnotes are rich and useful, the general-historical foundations of the work are admirably solid, and the exposition flows from cover to cover in a powerful and compelling stream.'
Times Literary Supplement"
"'The present volume ... extends and amplifies the basic argument that Gat developed in his earlier book on The Origins of Miltary Thought from the Enlightenment to Clausewitz, by far the most frequently cited work in the notes to this one. His approach has the merit of simplicity, and those who found the first volume convincing will find little to complain about here.'
Daniel Moran, United States Naval War College, The Journal of Military History"
"'In this most welcome sequel he extends his study to cover the whole of the period from the Napoleonic era to the First World War. A brief review can do scant justice to the quality of this book. Its erudition is matched by the clarity of its presentation and above all the originality of its concepts.'
Michael Howard, War in History 1994"
"`Gat's book must be lauded for the attempt it makes to remedy one of the great omisssions in the historiography of strategic theory. An especially worthwhile result of Gat's approach is the fundamental criticisms it allows Gat to make of the popular interpretation of pre-First World War French miltary thought, ... the second important contribution of Gat's book is to show that the 19th-century European military had a coherent, convincing, and applicable view of war.'
Security Studies"
"a thouroughly researched, felicitously composed ... work that ... makes a very important point and deserves close attention from students of military thought." - Harold R. Winton, The Journal of Military History, Vol.64, No.3.
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Part One: The Military School of the Enlightenment
1: Montecuccoli: The Impact of Proto-Science on Military Theory
2: The Military Thinkers of the French Enlightenment: The Quest for a General Theory of War
3: The Military Thinkers of the German 'Aufklarung'
4: Through the Napoleonic Age
Part Two: The German Movement, Clausewitz, and the Origins of the German Military School
5: The Reaction Against the Enlightenment: New Perspectives on Military Theory
6: Clausewitz: Demolishing and Rebuilding the Theoretical Ideal
7: Clausewitz: The Nature of War
8: Conclusion
9: Clausewitz's Final Notes Revisited
Part Three: The Development of Military Thought
10: Positivism, Romanticism, and Military Theory 1815-1870
11: The German Military School: Its World-View and Conception of War 1815-1914
12: The Cult of the Offensive: The Sources of French Military Doctrine 1871-1914
13: From Sail to Steam: Naval Theory and the Military Parallel 1882-1914
14: Marxism, Clausewitz, and Military Theory 1848 to the Nuclear Age
Part Four: Fascist Modernism and Visionaries of Machine Warfare15: Introduction: The 'Janus Face' of Fascism
16: J. F. C. Fuller: Positivism, Evolution, Fascism, and Future Warfare
17: Futurism, Proto-Fascist Italian Culture, and the Sources of Douhetism
18: German Right-Wing Radicalism, Strategic Adventurism, and Mechanized Warfare
19: Comparisons and Contrasts (I): American Populism, Progressivism, and Mid-West Technological Modernism
20: Comparisons and Contrasts (II): Marxism, Modernism, and the Doctrine of 'Deep Battle'
Part Five:Lideel Hart, Modern, and Post-Modern Strategy21: Introduction
22: Background: The First World War in Western Consciousness
23: Theory: The Lmited War, Moderate Peace, and the Strategy of Indirect Approach
24: Policy: Defence of the West (I): Containment in the 1930s
25: Policy: Defence of the West II: Hot War-Cold War
26: Conclusion: 'The Western Way in Warfare', Past and Future
Bibliography
Index
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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