A History of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Cold War [Paperback]

Azar Gat (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0199247625 | ISBN-13: 978-0199247622 | Publication Date: January 17, 2002 | Edition: 1

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. 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Probably the most authoritative single volume study of military thought that is currently available, and certainly one of the most accessible. Gat successfully relates a multiplicity of military thinkers to the intellectual environment in which they worked."-- The Historian

About the Author

Azar Gat is a Professor of Political Science at Tel Aviv University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 906 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (January 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199247625
• ISBN-13: 978-0199247622
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #575,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book!, August 18, 2004

By 

Dwight Charles (Thunder Bay, Ont Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A History of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Cold War (Paperback)

As a survey of military thought from the Enlightenment up to the Cold War, I found Professor Gat's book to be comprehensive, thought-provoking, well researched, and well written. In particular the effect of established opinions on the nature of war and how it should be waged, and the reaction of succeeding generations to these established opinions is very interesting. Specifically, the military theories developed during the Enlightenment and the reaction of military theorists to the victories of Napoleon (such as Clausewitz) were of special interest. As Professor Gat himself remarks, there is a tendency to treat the period before Clausewitz as a kind of intellectual void, during which there was no discussion of the theory and practice of war at all. In fact there was a great deal of controversy on military matters taking place in both France and Germany. Admittedly this is a specialist book, not for everyone. But for anyone interested in this topic, I highly recommend this book.

16 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing survey of military thought, July 6, 2004

By 

William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A History of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Cold War (Paperback)

This is the one-volume collection of Azar Gat's trilogy on military thought. He explores thinking about war and strategy ranging from Machiavelli to the 1950s, relating the ideas to their cultural and historical contexts.

As he writes, "New ideas emerge during periods of revolutionary change or at times of crisis, in response to great historical challenges." The great strategic thinkers Jomini and Clausewitz developed their revolutionary ideas in response to the French Revolution.

Gat argues that World War One's massive slaughter forced a paradigm shift from Clausewitz's ideas to the new idea of limited war. But Julian Corbett, limited war's greatest theorist, first published his ideas before 1914. Corbett argued, like Clausewitz, that wars were means to an end, continuations of policy. But he showed that wars could take many forms, with differing limits, depending on their political aims.

Gat exaggerates the importance of J. F. C. Fuller in the interwar period. Fuller plagiarised Ernest Swinton, who first proposed using tanks offensively in numbers to achieve breakthrough. Fuller fantasised that tanks alone could win wars, without infantry and combined arms.

Gat also over praises Basil Liddell Hart, who idealised limited war, just part of Britain's military experiences. In the 1930s, Hart predicted that wars would become more humane and rational: World War Two was the most destructive war in history.

In this war, the greatest test of Britain's survival as an independent and sovereign nation, Fuller and Hart encouraged Hitler to attack the Soviet Union. Hart opposed the Allies' policy of total war against Hitler, and called for Britain to collaborate with Hitler. Hart claimed that victory was unattainable and that fighting Hitler would `only lead to mutual suicide, and the collapse of civilisation'.

Gat asserts that Hart pioneered a `Western way' of warfare, of limited war, containment and economic coercion, based on the reactionary dreams of European and World Federation. But there is no such `Western way': Western ruling classes waged all sorts of wars against national liberation struggles, annihilatory against Korea, Algeria and Vietnam, relatively limited against Malaya and Kenya.