This three-volume study examines the questions raised by the performance of the military institutions of France, Germany, Russia, the United States, Great Britain, Japan and Italy in the period from 1914 to 1945. Leading military historians deal with the different national approaches to war and military power at the tactical, operational, strategic, and political levels. They form the basis for a fundamental re-examination of how military organizations have performed in the first half of the twentieth century. Now in a new edition, with a new introduction by the editors, these classic volumes will remain invaluable for military historians and social scientists in their examination of national security and military issues. They will also be essential reading for future military leaders at staff and war colleges.
This three-volume study examines the questions raised by the performance of the military institutions of France, Germany, Russia, the United States, Great Britain, Japan and Italy in the period from 1914 to 1945. Leading military historians deal with the different national approaches to war and military power at the tactical, operational, strategic, and political levels. They form the basis for a fundamental re-examination of how military organizations have performed in the first half of the twentieth century. Now in a new edition, with a new introduction by the editors, these classic volumes will remain invaluable for military historians and social scientists in their examination of national security and military issues. They will also be essential reading for future military leaders at staff and war colleges.
Volume 1: Introduction: military effectiveness twenty years after Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett; 1. The effectiveness of military organizations Allan R. Millett, Williamson Murray, and Kenneth H. Watman; 2. Britain in the First World War Paul Kennedy; 3. The dynamics of necessity: German military policy during the First World War Holger H. Herwig; 4. American military effectiveness in the First World War Timothy K. Nenninger; 5. Italy during the First World War John Gooch; 6. The French Army in the First World War Douglas Porch; 7. Japan, 1914–18 Ian Nish; 8. Imperial Russia's forces at war David R. Jones; 9. Military effectiveness in the First World War Paul Kennedy; Introduction: military effectiveness twenty years after Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett. Volume 2: 1. The Soviet armed forces in the interwar period Earl F. Ziemke; 2. The French armed forces, 1918–40 Robert A. Doughty; 3. The military effectiveness of the US armed forces, 1919–39 Ronald Spector; 4. The British armed forces, 1918–39 Brian Bond and Williamson Murray; 5. Japanese military effectiveness: the interwar period Carl Boyd; 6. The Italian armed forces, 1918–40 Brian R. Sullivan; 7. German military effectiveness between 1919 and 1939 Manfred Messerschmidt; 8. Military effectiveness of armed forces in the interwar period, 1919–41: a review Alvin D. Coox; Introduction: military effectiveness twenty years after Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett. Volume 3: 1. The effectiveness of the Japanese military establishment in the Second World War Alvin D. Coox; 2. The United States armed forces in the Second World War Allan R. Millett; 3. British military effectiveness in the Second World War Williamson Murray; 4. The Italian armed forces, 1940–3 MacGregor Knox; 5. The dynamics of volksgemeinschaft: the effectiveness of the German military establishment in the Second World War Jürgen E. Förster; 6. Bitter victory: French military effectiveness during the Second World War Ronald Chalmers Hood III; 7. The Soviet armed forces in the Great Patriotic War, 1941–5 John E. Jessup; 8. Military effectiveness in the Second World War Earl F. Ziemke; 9. Challenge and response at the operation and tactical levels, 1914–45 Lieutenant General John H. Cushman; 10. The political and strategic dimensions of military effectiveness Russell F. Weigley.
Examines questions raised by the performance of the military institutions of France, Germany, Russia, the US, Great Britain, Japan and Italy between 1914 and 1945.
Allan R. Millett is a specialist in the history of American military policy and twentieth-century wars. He is the founder of the internationally renowned military history program at the Ohio State University, where he is Mason Professor of History Emeritus. Millett currently directs the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans, where he is the Ambrose Professor of History and serves as the Senior Military Advisor for the National World War II Museum. He is the author or co-author of eight books and co-editor of five others. Williamson Murray is Professor Emeritus of History at the Ohio State University. At present he is a defense consultant and commentator on historical and military subjects in Washington. He is co-editor of The Making of Peace (with Jim Lacey), The Past as Prologue (with Richard Hart Sinnreich), The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300–2050 (with MacGregor Knox), Military Innovation in the Interwar Period (with Allan R. Millett), and The Making of Strategy (with Alvin Bernstein and MacGregor Knox). He has edited, along with Richard Sinnreich and Jim Lacey, a volume entitled Grand Strategy to be published by Cambridge University Press in early 2011.
'Military Effectiveness is a first-rate historical analysis and
commentary on the performance of nations at war in the most violent
half-century in recorded human history. Drawing upon the
considerable talents of such historians as Paul Kennedy, Holger H.
Herwig, John Gooch, Earl F. Ziemke, Robert A. Doughty, Ronald
Spector, Alvin D. Coox, MacGregor Knox and Russell F. Weigley,
Military Effectiveness offers a host of compelling … insights as to
why 'some military forces succeed, while others fail'.' Jeffrey
Record, Parameters
'This is an ambitious project that seeks to examine the military
effectiveness of Great Britain, the United States, France, Germany,
Russia, Italy, and Japan during the two world wars and in the
interwar period … The essays … provide a multitude of valuable
insights and analyses, particularly on questions such as manpower
and budgetary allocations that are sometimes overlooked in studies
that deal mainly with operations. Much information is packed into
this work that would require extensive reading in unfamiliar
sources to obtain elsewhere … It is impossible in a short review to
do justice to the subtlety and complexity of all of the essays.
They are of a uniformly high standard.' Paul G. Halpern, The
American Historical Review
'Military Effectiveness addresses its theme in a comprehensive
framework … The familiar reviewer's complaint about collective
works, that they lack focus, can scarcely be applied here. These
three volumes move toward their goal with the serried precision of
the Queen's Birthday Review. The coherence of Military
Effectiveness is not achieved at the expense of individual
contributions. Their overall quality is high enough that workaday
scholars are as likely to consult specific essays as to make use of
the work's general lines of argument.' Dennis E. Showalter, The
Journal of Military History
'As one can quickly determine from the scope, [this] is a work of
great magnitude and potential … Academics using these studies will
benefit from the explicit inclusion of the political level, while
military professionals will profit from incorporation of the
operational level rather than the former strategic-tactical
construct of military studies. It is not often that one work can
appeal to both audiences, and the editors are to be congratulated
for adopting this schema … Its main value is that it represents the
only single source of comparative studies that examine both the
conduct of and preparation for war across seven cultures and over
three decades that profoundly influenced the twentieth century …
For the serious student of military affairs who wishes to tackle
the entire series, the rewards will be in the insights gained from
the almost limitless combinations one can use to structure the
data.' Harold R. Winton, The Journal of Military History
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