War in the Age of Technology: Myriad Faces of Modern Armed Conflict

Technology of one kind or another has always been a central ingredient in war. The Spartan king Archidamus, for instance, reacted with alarm when first witnessing a weapon that could shoot darts through the air. And yet during the past two centuries technology has played an unprecedented role in military affairs and thinking, and in the overall conduct of war. In addition, the impact of new technology on warfare has brought major social and cultural changes.
This volume explores the relationship between war, technology, and modern society over the course of the last several centuries. The two world wars, total conflicts in which industrial technology took a terrible human toll, brought great changes to the practice of organized violence among nations; even so many aspect of military life and values remained largely unaffected. In the latter half of the twentieth century, technology in the form of nuclear deterrence appears to have prevented the global conflagration of world war while complicating and fueling ferocious regional contests.
A stimulating fusion of military and social history, extending back to the eighteenth century, and with contributions from such leading historians as Brian Bond, Paddy Griffith, and Neil McMillen, War in the Age of Technology will interest lay readers and specialists alike.

Author: Robert Geoffrey Jensen
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 04/01/2001
Pages: 406
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.31lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.91d
ISBN: 9780814742518

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 11/01/2001 pg. 245

About the Author
Jensen, Robert Geoffrey: - Geoffrey Jensen is John C. Biggs '30 Cincinnati Chair in Military History at Virginia Military Institute.Wiest, Andrew: - Andrew Wiest is Professor of History and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is co-editor of War in the Age of Technology: Myriad Faces of Modern Armed Combat (NYU Press, 2001) and author or co-author of numerous books, including Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land: The Vietnam War Revisited, Atlas of World War II, and The Vietnam War, 1959-1975. He lives in Hattiesburg, MS.