Rethinking Military History is a bold new 'thought book' that reconsiders military history at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
The chapters provide a valuable and concise survey of the main ...themes in the study of military history from 1500 to the present day as Jeremy Black reveals the main trends in the practice and approach to military history and proposes a new manifesto for the subject to move forward. This must-read study demonstrates the limitations of current approaches, including common generalizations, omissions, and over-simplications. Engaging theoretical discussions, with reference to specific conflicts, suggest how these limitations can be remedied and adapted, whilst incorporating contributions from other disciplines.
Rethinking Military History is essential reading for all those with an interest in military history, and all who wish to take part in moving the discipline forward.
Jeremy Black is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He is editor of the Routledge series Warfare and History.
Preface 1. Introduction 2. The Sound of Guns: Military History Today 3. Redressing Eurocentricism 4. Qualifying Technology 5. Setting Military Objectives 6. 1500-1815 7. 1775-1918 8. 1914-Today 9. Conclusions Selected Bibliography Index
' this book is stimulating and thought-provoking. It will be of particular value to serious students of military history, and to those who aspire to write it.' - British Army Review
'...essential reading for all those with an interest in military history, and all those who wish to take part in moving the discipline forward.' - USI Journal
Cold War Geopolitics BLACK, Jeremy
Bulletin of "Carol I" National Defense University,
01/2024, Letnik:
12, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Swiftly following World War Two, the Cold War between a Soviet-led alliance and an American-led one might appear to be a clearcut case of a continuity with Mackinder’s 1904 perspective. In practice, ...there was the significant intervening stage of the earlier ideological political contest of 1918-41 between the Soviet Union and a British anti-Communist system.
A global account of military strategy, which examines the practices, rather than the theories, of the most significant military figures of the past 400 years Strategy has existed as long as there has ...been organised conflict. In this new account, Jeremy Black explores the ever-changing relationship between purpose, force, implementation and effectiveness in military strategy and its dramatic impact on the development of the global power system. Taking a 'total' view of strategy, Black looks at leading powers - notably the United States, China, Britain and Russia - in the wider context of their competition and their domestic and international strengths. Ranging from France'sAncien Regime and Britain's empire building to present day conflicts in the Middle East, Black devotes particular attention to the strategic practice and decisions of the Kangxi Emperor, Clausewitz, Napoleon and Hitler.
The historical context is not the only one to consider when assessing maritime security today, but it is a context that offers an ability to assess long-term significance. This context can be ...approached in a number of ways, not least the rise and fall of maritime empires and its analytical value when considering China and America.
Information is power. For more than five hundred years the success or failure of nations has been determined by a country's ability to acquire knowledge and technical skill and transform them into ...strength and prosperity. Leading historian Jeremy Black approaches global history from a distinctive perspective, focusing on the relationship between information and society and demonstrating how the understanding and use of information have been the primary factors in the development and character of the modern age.
Black suggests that the West's ascension was a direct result of its institutions and social practices for acquiring, employing, and retaining information and the technology that was ultimately produced. His cogent and well-reasoned analysis looks at cartography and the hardware of communication, armaments and sea power, mercantilism and imperialism, science and astronomy, as well as bureaucracy and the management of information, linking the history of technology with the history of global power while providing important indicators for the future of our world.
History and geography delineate the operation of power, not only its range but also the capacity to plan and the ability to implement. Approaching state strategy and policy from the spatial angle, ...Jeremy Black argues that just as the perception of power is central to issues of power, so place, and its constraints and relationships, is partly a matter of perception, not merely map coordinates. Geopolitics, he maintains, is as much about ideas and perception as it is about the actual spatial dimensions of power. Black's study ranges widely, examining geography and the spatial nature of state power from the 15th century to the present day. He considers the rise of British power, geopolitics and the age of Imperialism, the Nazis and World War II, and the Cold War, and he looks at the key theorists of the latter 20th century, including Henry Kissinger, Francis Fukuyama and Samuel P. Huntington, Philip Bobbitt, Niall Ferguson, and others.
Brilliant and wrenching, The Holocaust: History and Memory tells the story of the brutal mass slaughter of Jews during World War II and how that genocide has been remembered and misremembered ever ...since. Taking issue with generations of scholars who separate the Holocaust from Germany's military ambitions, historian Jeremy M. Black demonstrates persuasively that Germany's war on the Allies was entwined with Hitler's war on Jews. As more and more territory came under Hitler's control, the extermination of Jews became a major war aim, particularly in the east, where many died and whole Jewish communities were exterminated in mass shootings carried out by the German army and collaborators long before the extermination camps were built. Rommel's attack on Egypt was a stepping stone to a larger goal-the annihilation of 400,000 Jews living in Palestine. After Pearl Harbor, Hitler saw America's initial focus on war with Germany rather than Japan as evidence of influential Jewish interests in American policy, thus justifying and escalating his war with Jewry through the Final Solution. And the German public knew. In chilling detail, Black unveils compelling evidence that many everyday Germans must have been aware of the genocide around them. In the final chapter, he incisively explains the various ways that the Holocaust has been remembered, downplayed, and even dismissed as it slips from horrific experience into collective consciousness and memory. Essential, concise, and highly readable, The Holocaust: History and Memory bears witness to those forever silenced and ensures that we will never forget their horrifying fate.
