The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300-2050MacGregor Knox, Williamson Murray The Dynamics of Military Revolution bridges a major gap in the emerging literature on revolutions in military affairs. It suggests that two very different phenomena have been at work over the past centuries: "military revolutions," which are driven by vast social and political changes, and "revolutions in military affairs," which military institutions have directed, although usually with great difficulty and ambiguous results. MacGregor Knox and Williamson Murray provide a conceptual framework and historical context for understanding the patterns of change, innovation, and adaptation that have marked war in the Western world since the fourteenth century--beginning with Edward III's revolution in medieval warfare, through the development of modern military institutions in seventeenth-century France, to the military impact of mass politics in the French Revolution, the cataclysmic military-industrial struggle of 1914-1918, and the German Blitzkrieg victories of 1940. Case studies and a conceptual overview offer an indispensible introduction to revolutionary military change,--which is as inevitable as it is difficult to predict. Macgregor Knox is the Stevenson Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of Common Destiny (Cambridge, 2000) and Hitler's Italian Allies (Cambridge, 2000). Knox and Murray are co-editors of Making of Strategy (Cambridge, 1996). Willamson Murray is Senior Fellow at the Institute for Defense Analysis. He is the co-editor of Military Innovation in the Interwar Period (Cambridge, 1996) and author of A War to Be Won (Harvard University Press, 2000). |
Contents
Thinking about revolutions in warfare | 1 |
As if a new sun had arisen Englands fourteenthcentury RMA | 15 |
Forging the Western army in seventeenthcentury France | 35 |
Mass politics and nationalism as military revolution The French Revolution and after | 57 |
Surviving military revolution The US Civil War | 74 |
The PrussoGerman RMA 18401871 | 92 |
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The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300–2050 MacGregor Knox,Williamson Murray Limited preview - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
10th Panzer Division aircraft American archers armed forces armor army's artillery attack Austrian battalion battlefield battleship breakthrough breech-loading campaign Carl von Clausewitz casualties century Clausewitz combat command concepts Confederate Crécy decisive defeat defense doctrine Dreadnought drill Edward III's effective enemy English European fight fireplan firepower Fisher fleet formations France French army German army Guderian guns indirect fire infantry interwar Jean le Bel king logistical London Luftwaffe maneuver men-at-arms Meuse military affairs Military History Military Revolution mobilization modern Moltke musket Napoleon nation naval Navy nouvelle invention offensive operational organization Overland Campaign Panzer Corps Panzer Division percent potential Prussian Prussian army railroads reforms regiments result revolution in military revolutionary rifle Rogers Royal seventeenth-century soldiers Soviet staff strategic success tactical tanks targets tion troops U.S. Army U.S. Civil War U.S. Navy United victory warfare weapons Wehrmacht Western Williamson Murray World