Armament And History: The Influence Of Armament On History From The Dawn Of Classical Warfare To The End Of The Second World War [Paperback]

J. F. C. Fuller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 1998

Although skill, leadership, strategy, and number of forces have been important factors in battles, armaments have played the most decisive role in determining ultimate military victory. Entranced by the power and precision of armaments, man has continuously invented faster, more accurate, and more devastating weapons, from the javelin, stone axe, sword, and the arrow to the cannon, musket, rifle, tank, super-fortress, and missile. In this study of the influence of armaments on history, J.F.C. Fuller shows how the inventive genius of man can potentially obliterate his sense of moral values and destroy civilization. Divided into armament epochs—Ages of Valour, Chivalry, Gunpowder, Steam, Oil, and Atomic Energy—Armament and History examines the most influential military innovations of each period as well as the key leaders (including Alexander, Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, and Napoleon) who skillfully employed these weapons. Although the author acknowledges that war cannot be eliminated entirely, he urges man to impose restrictions on warfare before society descends into a second Dark Age. Completed immediately after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—chilling examples of mass destruction caused by armaments—this impassioned work remains relevant more than a half-century later.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Major General J.F.C. Fuller argues provocatively that technology matters far more than brainpower in war:

Tools, or weapons, if only the right ones can be discovered, form 99 percent of victory.... Strategy, command, leadership, courage, discipline, supply, organization, and all the moral and physical paraphernalia of war are nothing to a high superiority of weapons--at most they go to form the one per cent which makes the whole possible.

If that sounds outlandish--how much, one might ask, of an effect did technology have at Chancellorsville?--consider this more plausible formulation: In modern wars, "no army of 50 years before any date selected would stand 'a dog's chance' against the army existing at that date." Sounds about right.

Armament and History is a broad survey spanning the ancient world to the atomic age, showing how military innovation has changed the course of history time and again. Fuller never gets mired in dense detail, and has a knack for finding apt (and sometimes humorous) anecdotes. Mounted war elephants, for example, traditionally have had a dramatic impact on troops who had never seen them before. When one general employed them against the Gauls, he confessed, "I am ashamed to think that we owe our safety to these sixteen animals." Yet as Fuller shows, successful weapons always meet even more successful ones (an army once attacked war elephants by covering pigs with pitch, lighting them on fire, and driving them toward the burly beasts). This is a fine introduction to the development of weaponry over the last 3,000 years. --John J. Miller

About the Author

Major General J.F.C. Fuller (1878-1966) was one of the most important and original military thinkers of this century. He served as lieutenant in the Boer War, organized the first British tank corps in World War I, and developed the strategy and tactics of tank warfare which were later put to such effective use by the Nazis for their World War II blitzkriegs. His many books include A Military History of the Western World (3 volumes), The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant, Julius Caesar: Man, Soldier, and Tyrant, and The Generalship of Alexander the Great, all of which are available from Da Capo Press/Perseus Book Group.

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (August 22, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306808595
• ISBN-13: 978-0306808593
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,649,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good 2nd or 3rd Book on the Subject, March 10, 2000

By 

A. Bowdoin Van Riper (Vineyard Haven, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Armament And History: The Influence Of Armament On History From The Dawn Of Classical Warfare To The End Of The Second World War (Paperback)

There are a lot of good books on the relationship between technology and warfare, and if you're interested enough in the subject to read several of them, Fuller is a good choice for #2 or #3. It misses being a good choice for #1 for several reasons:

1) Time Frame. Fuller wrote in 1945, and so his treatment of the nuclear age is speculative rather than retrospective. The speculations are nearly all interesting, but they focus on nuclear weapons to the exclusion of conventional arms with which post-1945 wars were actually fought.

2) Depth. Fuller is exhaustive on land warfare in the 1800-1945 era, but often sketchy on the pre-industrial era(s) and on anything connected with the sea. The things he does have to say are interesting and well supported, but the background to make sense of them is often lacking.

3) Perspective. Fuller was a career military officer and one of the people who developed the tactics (in 1917-1919) for what became (in 1939-45) modern, highly mobile land warfare. His view of history is (reasonably and properly) shaped by that experience, and it helps to have some sense of Fuller the military thinker *before* you approach Fuller the historian.

None of these faults keeps _Armarments and History_ from succeeding on its own terms. It's a thoughtful and well-documented argument. Readers interested in military history and military technology will find a lot of valuable insights and ideas in it. BUT if you're looking for a first (or only) book to read on the subject, try Martin Van Creveld's _Technology and War_ or Robert O'Connell's _Arms and Men_ or Bernard and Fawn Brodie's _From Crossbow to H-Bomb_ (roughly in that order of preference).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Popcorn for RMA/Transformation Fans, January 18, 2009

By 

D. Lewis (Annapolis, MD, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Armament And History: The Influence Of Armament On History From The Dawn Of Classical Warfare To The End Of The Second World War (Paperback)

JFC Fuller could have invented RMA (Revolution in Military Affairs)/Transformation. He did not because he did not do the historical "due diligence" done by the real RMA community in the 1950's and 1980's. This book is his best effort in that direction, however. He believes that war is "99 percent technology", and this book advocates that view to the exclusion of any contrary information. That makes this a useful "balancing read" for any serious student of RMA. On the surface, he makes a compelling argument; certainly good enough for the casual reader. Any level of digging, however, will quickly shred most of his arguments & examples. If you think war is all about tanks, airplanes, ships and their weapons, this book is for you. If you think strategy, tactics, morale, national finances or logistics might have some influence on war, you might find this book frustrating.