Dying to Learn (eBook)

Wartime Lessons from the Western Front

Michael a. Hunzeker (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021
264 Seiten
Cornell University Press (Verlag)
9781501758461 (ISBN)

Infos

In Dying to Learn, Michael Hunzeker develops a novel theory to explain how wartime militaries learn. He focuses on the Western Front, which witnessed three great-power armies struggle to cope with deadlock throughout the First World War, as the British, French, and German armies all pursued the same solutions-assault tactics, combined arms, and elastic defense in depth. By the end of the war, only the German army managed to develop and implement a set of revolutionary offensive, defensive, and combined arms doctrines that in hindsight represented the best way to fight.

Hunzeker identifies three organizational variables that determine how fighting militaries generate new ideas, distinguish good ones from bad ones, and implement the best of them across the entire organization. These factors are: the degree to which leadership delegates authority on the battlefield; how effectively the organization retains control over soldier and officer training; and whether or not the military possesses an independent doctrinal assessment mechanism.

Through careful study of the British, French, and German experiences in the First World War, Dying to Learn provides a model that shows how a resolute focus on analysis, command, and training can help prepare modern militaries for adapting amidst high-intensity warfare in an age of revolutionary technological change.

Autor

Michael A. Hunzeker is Assistant Professor in George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government. Follow him on X @michaelhunzeker.

Inhalt

Introduction: Wartime Learning
Assessment, Command, and Training Theory
Learning on the Western Front
The German Army on the Western Front
The British Army on the Western Front
The French Army on the Western Front
Conclusion: Alternative Explanations and Policy Implications

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.7.2021
• Reihe/Serie: Cornell Studies in Security Affairs
• Reihe/Serie: Cornell Studies in Security Affairs
• Zusatzinfo: 9 b&w line drawings
• Verlagsort: Ithaca
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 150 x 150 mm
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• Schlagworte: Innovation in World War I, Tactics on the western front, Military Learning, Why do militaries change, why do some militaries learn faster than others, combined arms warfare
• ISBN-13: 9781501758461 / 9781501758461