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Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British and American Ideas about Strategic Bombing, 1914-1945
Tami Biddle
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Description for Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British and American Ideas about Strategic Bombing, 1914-1945
Paperback. Examines how Anglo-American ideas about "strategic" bombing were formed and implemented. This book argues that ideas about bombing civilian targets rested on - and gained validity from - widespread but substantially erroneous assumptions about the nature of modern industrial societies and their vulnerability to aerial bombardment. Series: Princeton Studies in International History and Politics. Num Pages: 416 pages, black & white illustrations. BIC Classification: 3JJF; 3JJG; 3JJH; JWG; JWM. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 232 x 156 x 24. Weight in Grams: 588.
A major revision of our understanding of long-range bombing, this book examines how Anglo-American ideas about "strategic" bombing were formed and implemented. It argues that ideas about bombing civilian targets rested on--and gained validity from--widespread but substantially erroneous assumptions about the nature of modern industrial societies and their vulnerability to aerial bombardment. These assumptions were derived from the social and political context of the day and were maintained largely through cognitive error and bias. Tami Davis Biddle explains how air theorists, and those influenced by them, came to believe that strategic bombing would be an especially effective coercive tool and how they responded when their assumptions were challenged. Biddle analyzes how a particular interpretation of the World War I experience, together with airmen's organizational interests, shaped interwar debates about strategic bombing and preserved conceptions of its potentially revolutionary character. This flawed interpretation as well as a failure to anticipate implementation problems were revealed as World War II commenced. By then, the British and Americans had invested heavily in strategic bombing. They saw little choice but to try to solve the problems in real time and make long-range bombing as effective as possible. Combining narrative with analysis, this book presents the first-ever comparative history of British and American strategic bombing from its origins through 1945. In examining the ideas and rhetoric on which strategic bombing depended, it offers critical insights into the validity and robustness of those ideas--not only as they applied to World War II but as they apply to contemporary warfare.
Product Details
Publisher
Princeton University Press United States
Number of pages
416
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2004
Series
Princeton Studies in International History and Politics
Condition
New
Number of Pages
416
Place of Publication
New Jersey, United States
ISBN
9780691120102
SKU
V9780691120102
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-50
About Tami Biddle
Tami Davis Biddle is Associate Professor of National Security and Strategy at the United States Army War College. She teaches military and diplomatic history, national security policy, and grand strategy. Her research focuses on the evolution of military ideas, and their implementation as strategies for national defense and methods of warfighting.
Reviews for Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British and American Ideas about Strategic Bombing, 1914-1945
One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2002 "Well written, full of nuance and detail, and solidly researched. Biddle has done a thorough job of cutting through the thicket of contradictions and fantasies that surround the strategic bombing debate from 1914 to 1945."
Dominick A. Pisano, Military History "There are books about military ideas and books about military practice. This work by a talented young historian integrates the two forms. In addition to a deft pen and an eye for wry anecdote, Biddle possesses an instinct for the ways in which ideas about new forms of warfare germinate, spread, and are adopted in the absence of good data. The importance of this book therefore not only stems from what it tells the reader about how the two great air powers of the first half of the twentieth century thought about this new instrument of war. It also offers cautionary lessons in an age of radical military change. Sleek and dazzling new technology is one thing; sensible doctrine for its use in war is another."
Foreign Affairs "This is one of the most cogent, in-depth analyses of an important international historical controversy. Biddle's insight into the persistence of cognitive structures and processes serves as a model for future historical inquiry."
Choice "An extremely well-crafted history... [It] can now be recommended as the best treatment of its subject matter in a single volume."
John Gooch, International History Review "Tami Davis Biddle ... has set air power into its widest historical contexts yet and, while many of her arguments are not entirely new, has advanced the field considerably with a well-researched and carefully thought-out book."
Michael S. Neiberg, American Historical Review "By synthesizing so many complex issues, Biddle offers a landmark piece of scholarship that should appeal to both experts and history enthusiasts through its balance, lucidity, and clarity."
Guillaume de Syon, Air Power History "Anyone interested in understanding the United States Air Force's bombing operations in Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan over the past decade should begin by reading this book. Today's aircraft and weapons differ dramatically from those used over the western front in World War I, but
as Tami Davis Biddle points out
ideas about strategic bombing from that era have remained remarkably resilient... Biddle's work should be read by anyone interested in understanding the shaping of ideas behind the use of military force and how these ideas ultimately affect political decisions."
Thomas E. Griffith, Jr., American Diplomacy
Dominick A. Pisano, Military History "There are books about military ideas and books about military practice. This work by a talented young historian integrates the two forms. In addition to a deft pen and an eye for wry anecdote, Biddle possesses an instinct for the ways in which ideas about new forms of warfare germinate, spread, and are adopted in the absence of good data. The importance of this book therefore not only stems from what it tells the reader about how the two great air powers of the first half of the twentieth century thought about this new instrument of war. It also offers cautionary lessons in an age of radical military change. Sleek and dazzling new technology is one thing; sensible doctrine for its use in war is another."
Foreign Affairs "This is one of the most cogent, in-depth analyses of an important international historical controversy. Biddle's insight into the persistence of cognitive structures and processes serves as a model for future historical inquiry."
Choice "An extremely well-crafted history... [It] can now be recommended as the best treatment of its subject matter in a single volume."
John Gooch, International History Review "Tami Davis Biddle ... has set air power into its widest historical contexts yet and, while many of her arguments are not entirely new, has advanced the field considerably with a well-researched and carefully thought-out book."
Michael S. Neiberg, American Historical Review "By synthesizing so many complex issues, Biddle offers a landmark piece of scholarship that should appeal to both experts and history enthusiasts through its balance, lucidity, and clarity."
Guillaume de Syon, Air Power History "Anyone interested in understanding the United States Air Force's bombing operations in Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan over the past decade should begin by reading this book. Today's aircraft and weapons differ dramatically from those used over the western front in World War I, but
as Tami Davis Biddle points out
ideas about strategic bombing from that era have remained remarkably resilient... Biddle's work should be read by anyone interested in understanding the shaping of ideas behind the use of military force and how these ideas ultimately affect political decisions."
Thomas E. Griffith, Jr., American Diplomacy