Diplomacy, War, and Technology since 1830

by Maurice Pearton

Overview

"No other book combines so much of modern military history with so rich an exploration of related factors in industry, finance, education, and technology, as well as statecraft. Combining strands of history from all these areas, Pearton makes an unusually complete and cogent case for the breakdown of traditional distinctions between the civil and the military, and even between war and peace. This is an excellent work of military and economic history."—Russell F. Weigley, author of The American Way of War.





"Pearton's historical approach adds needed depth and perspective to many contemporary discussions of the arms problem. . . . This is an illuminating and incisive inquiry into a phenomenon of unquestioned importance."—International Affairs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700602544
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	07/06/1984
Series:	Studies in Government and Public Policy
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Maurice Pearton is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Richmond College in London. He has been a visiting fellow of the Centre for International Studies at Cambridge University and a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface to the Paperback Edition

Preface

Part I

-Technique and the redefinition of categories

-Values and technology change

-Industry as a science-based system; questions for government

-The ambivalences of the enterprise

Part II 1830-1870

-Technical change and war at sea

-Anglo-French cooperation and rivalry

-Technical change and war on land

-Railways and strategy: 1859-1866-1870

-The main enterprises

-‘War’ and ‘Peace’ redefined: Cobden

Part III 1870-1914

-The requirements of power after 1870

-New rationales for war; the fittest and how they survive: Schmoller

-Enterprises in the new setting; exports

-National strategy and the ‘timetable’ effect: Tirpitz and Schleiffen

-‘The Plan’ and its consequences: the Critique of Bloch

-Balkan nationalism and industrialized war

Part IV 1914-1918

-Upheaval in the European industrial system

-The application of new technologies: war as a ‘total’ activity

Part V 1919-1939

-New states - new conflicts - new definitions

-‘Aggression,’ its prevention and costs; the lessons of world war

-Security in the air age: reassessments of ‘civil’ and ‘military’

-Strategy as public works - Maginot

-Options and the industrial system; air rearmament in Germany and Britain

Part VI 1939-

-The conscription of pure science: methods and operations

-‘War’ and ‘Peace’ at the limits of knowledge: nuclear war

-‘Civil’ and ‘Military’ in the nuclear age; the state as researcher, producer and user

Conclusions

Notes and References

Select Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Pearton’s historical approach adds needed depth and perspective to many contemporary discussions of the arms problem. . . . This is an illuminating and incisive inquiry into a phenomenon of unquestioned importance."—International Affairs

"All those involved in the decision-making process of government would do well to study Mr. Pearton's splendid book."—The Economist

"No other book combines so much of modern military history with so rich an exploration of related factors in industry, finance, education, and technology, as well as statecraft. Combining strands of history from all these areas, Pearton makes an unusually complete and cogent case for the breakdown of traditional distinctions between the civil and the military, and even between war and peace. This is an excellent work of military and economic history."—Russell F. Weigley, author of The American Way of War

"This is an interesting and very useful book. It traces the impact of evolving military technology on the national security problem from 1830 to the present. This subject sets into context the current debate about arms racing and the military-industrial complex, and the author argues convincingly that the impact of military technology on the state has been so great as to call into question much of the traditional distinction between war and peace. His historical approach adds needed depth and perspective to many contemporary discussions of the arms problem, and his good sense of historical and economic factors avoids both the narrow military and technical emphasis and the moralistic futility which too often afflict work on this subject. The book is well written, and an entertaining read. I recommend it as an illuminating and incisive inquiry into a phenomenon of unquestioned importance."—Barry Buzan of the University of Warwick, writing in International Affairs

From the Publisher

All those involved in the decision-making process of government would do well to study Mr. Pearton's splendid book.

The Economist