War in the Age of Technology: Myriad Faces of Modern Armed Conflict

409 Pages·2001·0.93 MB·English

by  Robert Jensen

WAR IN
THE AGE OF
TECHNOLOGY
THE WORLD OF WAR
general editor
Dennis Showalter
SEEDS OF EMPIRE
The American Revolutionary
Conquest of the Iroquois
max m. mintz
HOW EFFECTIVE IS
STRATEGIC BOMBING?
Lessons Learned from
World War II to Kosovo
gian p. gentile
WAR IN THE AGE
OF TECHNOLOGY
Myriad Faces of Modern
Armed Conflict
edited by geoffrey jensen
and andrew wiest
edited by
GEOFFREY JENSEN
AND ANDREW WIEST
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
WAR IN
THE AGE OF
TECHNOLOGY
Myriad Faces of
Modern Armed
Conflict
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
a
New York University Press
new york and london
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
©2001by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
War in the age of technology : myriad faces of modern armed conflict /
edited by Geoffrey Jensen and Andrew Wiest.
p. cm. — (The world of war)
Includes index.
ISBN0-8147-4250-5(cloth) — ISBN 0-8147-4251-3(paper)
1. War. 2. Military art and science—History—18th century.
3. Military art and science—History—19th century. 4. Military
art and science—History—20th century. 5. Technology—History—
18th century. 6. Technology—History—19th century. 7. Technology—
History—20th century. I. Jensen, Geoffrey, 1965– II. Wiest, Andrew,
1960– III. Title. IV. Series.
U21.2.W368 2001
355.02—dc21 00-012556
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For our parents

CONTENTS
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Meaning of War in a Technological Age 1
Geoffrey Jensen
part i: Technology and the Military: On and Off
the Battlefield
1. Infantry Armament and the Perception of Tactical
Need, 1789–1918 19
Paddy Griffith
2. Technology, Industry, and War, 1945–1991 42
Warren Chin
3. The Impact of Communications and the Media on
the Art of War since 1815 66
Stephen Badsey
part ii: The Myriad Faces of Total War
4. The Morale of the British Army on the Western Front,
1914–18: A Case Study in the Importance of the
“Human Factor” in Twentieth-Century Total War 105
G. D. Sheffield
5. Not All Beer and Skittles? Everyday Life and Leisure
on the Western Front 140
Chris McCarthy
6. The Indian Corps on the Western Front:
A Reconsideration 167
Robert McLain
vii
viii contents
7. The Somme in British History 194
Brian Bond
8. The Elusive Victory: The BEF and the Operational
Level of War, September 1918 211
Niall J. A. Barr
9. Scientists at War: The Development of Radar and
Jet Propulsion in Britain 239
Eric Bobo
10. War and Black Memory: World War II and the Origins
of the Civil Rights Movement 263
Neil R. McMillen
part iii: The Nuclear Age: Myriad Faces of Limited War
11. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: The Legacy of War 295
Andrew Wiest, Leslie P. Root, and Raymond M. Scurfield
12. Iraq: A Third-World Superpower? 333
Sean McKnight
13. Russia and Warfare in the Postindustrial Age 365
Michael Orr
contributors 381
index 385
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
The authors wish to thank sev-
eral people and institutions for aiding us in a multitude of ways in the
production of this work. Above all, we would like to thank our col-
leagues in the Department of History at the University of Southern
Mississippi. Led by Orazio Ciccarelli and Charles Bolton, the former
and present chairs respectively, our colleagues in the history depart-
ment have recognized the worth of military history and have done
much to support and augment our endeavors. With their support we
were able to found the Center for the Study of War and Society
through which this book was conceived and produced. The support
of our colleagues has also made possible a regular faculty exchange
with the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which was equally im-
portant in making this book possible. We would like to thank every-
one at Sandhurst for helping make our teaching stints there so pro-
ductive and enjoyable, but we are especially grateful to Matt Midlane,
the late John Pimlott, Duncan Anderson, and Paul Harris for their
contributions to the faculty exchange. We would also like to extend
our thanks to Tim Hudson, the Dean of International and Continuing
Education at USM. His support was crucial in the founding of the ex-
change with Sandhurst and in our Study Abroad Program in Viet-
nam—which itself was instrumental to our research on Vietnam and
to the chapter on post-traumatic stress disorder in this book. The ed-
itors and staff at New York University Press, most notably Niko
Pfund and Despina Gimbel, also deserve many thanks for their hard
work in making this book a reality. And finally, the authors would
like to thank their wives—Laura Morgan and Jill Wiest—for their un-
failing support during the work for this project and in our lives.
ix