The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300–2050MacGregor Knox, Williamson Murray The Dynamics of Military Revolution aims to bridge a major gap in the emerging literature on revolutions in military affairs, suggesting that there have been two very different phenomena 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. By providing both a conceptual framework and a historical context for thinking about revolutionary changes in military affairs, the work establishes a baseline for understanding the patterns of change, innovation, and adaptation that have marked war in the Western World since the thirteenth century - beginning with Edward III's revolutionary changes in medieval warfare, through the development of modern Western military institutions in seventeenth-century France, to the cataclysmic changes of the First World War and the German Blitzkrieg victories of 1940. This history provides a guide for thinking about military revolutions in the coming century, which are as inevitable as they are difficult to predict. |
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 |
Other editions - View all
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 institutions 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