The American Culture of War

"The American Culture of War" presents a sweeping critical examination of every major American war since 1941: World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the First and Second Persian Gulf Wars. As he carefully considers the myriad cultural forces that surrounded each military engagement, Adrian R. Lewis offers an original, provocative look at the motives people and governments used to wage war, the discord among military personnel, the flawed political policies that guided military strategy, and the civilian perceptions that characterized each conflict. With each chapter similarly structured to allow the reader to draw parallels between the wars, Lewis deftly traces the evolution of U.S. military strategy since the Second World War. Timely, incisive, and comprehensive, "The American Culture of War" is a unique and invaluable survey of over sixty years of American military history.

ISBN 0415979757   Pages 560 ISBN13 9780415979757 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd   Weight (grammes) 1030 Imprint Routledge   Published in London Format Paperback   Height (mm) 254 Publication date 13 Feb 2007   Width (mm) 178 Library of Congress 2006018393   Spine width (mm) 29 DEWEY 355.033073   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC22

1		Culture, genes, and war		1
2		Traditional American thinking about the conduct of war		19
3		The legacy of World War II : man versus machine		37
4		Truman and the evolution of national military strategy and doctrine		63
5		The Korean War : the opening phases, 1950-51		83
6		The Korean War : the final phases, 1951-53		115
7		Eisenhower and massive retaliation		147
8		Civil-military relations and the national military command structure		169
9		Limited war : Kennedy and McNamara		201
10		The Vietnam War : the opening phases, 1955-67		229
11		The Vietnam War : the final phases, 1967-75		265
12		The recovery and reorganization of the U.S. Armed forces		295
13		The Persian Gulf War : war without the people		317
14		The Persian Gulf War : operation desert storm		339
15		The new American way of war		377
16		The Second Persian Gulf War : the conventional war		401
17		The Second Persian Gulf War : the unfinished insurgency war		437
18		The New American citizenship		451
App		Military map symbols
		Selected bibliography : the American culture of war

'An outstanding volume that is sure to be of interest to faculty and cadets, as well as historians and national security professionals far and wide.' -- Lance Betros, Colonel, US Army 'The American Culture of War is a first-rate study that asks big questions and provides answers that are of value to American and non-American scholars alike. It makes a major contribution to the developing cultural approach to military history.' -- Jeremy Black, University of Exeter, UK 'Lewis combines a powerful argument with a detailed critique of U.S. strategy since World War II as overly dependant on technology, and shows how these have eroded two traditional American moral concepts: the equal value of every human life and the universal civic responsibility to defend the country.' --Dennis Showalter, Colorado College, USA 'The American Culture of War is a striking and magisterial tour de force. Combining the hard-headed realism and moral indignation of a professional soldier with the keen analytical outlook of a trained historian, Adrian Lewis exposes the political in-fighting, intellectual follies, cultural arrogance, media ignorance, inter-service rivalries, and changes in the national mood that have repeatedly caused the United States to wage its most recent wars in ways that play to its weaknesses rather than its strengths. The American Culture of War should be mandatory reading for policy makers, military leaders, students of military history, and all Americans with the slightest interest in national security.' -- Gregory J.W. Urwin, Temple University, USA

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