Books People And Military Thought

Machiavelli’s experience in organizing a Florentine militia shaped the composition of his Art of War (1521), a book that is now less well known than The Prince, but that had a huge impact on sixteenth-century cultures of warfare.

"How did the evolution of new gunpowder weapons change the nature, structure and composition of the Florentine militias during the first decades of the sixteenth century? Via an examination of little-known and unpublished sources, this book provides a comparative exploration of two Florentine republican experiments with a peasant militia: one promoted and created by Niccolò Machiavelli (1506-12) and a later one (1527-30). Using this comparison as the basis for a new reading of Machiavelli's Art of War (which drew on the author's experience with the militia), the book then investigates the relationship between the circulation and reception of Machiavelli's influential work, changing conceptions of militia, and the formation of new cultures of warfare in Europe in the sixteenth century."--

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 theRomantic 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 whichdominated 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.

This book sheds new light on the origins and nature of modern military thinking. The ideas of Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831)--which remain at the core of strategic analysis today--have previously been examined apart from their 18th-century cultural and philosophical roots. Gat here demonstrates the extent to which culture affects military theory by relating a series of military thinkers to their cultural backgrounds. He also provides a provocative critique of Clausewitz's classic work On War, and demonstrates how the major currents of modern military thought have evolved from the cultural frameworks and historical outlooks of both the German Movement and the Enlightenment.

Moyar presents a wide-ranging history of counterinsurgency which draws on the historical record and interviews with hundreds of counterinsurgency veterans. He identifies the ten critical attributes of counterinsurgency leadership and reveals why these attributes have been more prevalent in some organizations than others.

A former top Pentagon official, daughter of anti-war activists, wife of an Army Green Beret and human rights activist presents a scholarly examination of how a constant state of war is contrary to America's founding values, undermines international rules and compromises future security. --Publisher