Read more
This groundbreaking study offers a compelling and original interpretation of the rise of military aviation. Jeremy Black, one of the world's finest scholars of military history, provides a lucid analysis of the use of air power over land and sea during both the two world wars and the more limited wars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Black breaks new ground by exploring not only conventional war-both inside and outside Europe-but also the use of air power in unconventional wars, especially critical given the spread of insurgencies around the globe. He vividly describes traditional debates over the pros and cons of strategic bombing and aircraft carriers versus battleships and gives equal attention to managerial, doctrinal, and technological innovations. The author shows how air power became significantly more effective as World War II progressed and at the same time highlights its limits in the two Gulf Wars.
The author goes beyond our traditional understanding of air power associated with bombing and fighter engagements, adding the important elements associated with naval power, including ground/logistics support, antiaircraft measures, and political constraints. As he explains, air power has become Western politicians' weapon of choice, spreading maximum destruction with a minimum of commitment. His current and comprehensive study considers how we got to this point, and what the future has in store. Anyone seeking a balanced, accurate understanding of air power in history will find this book an essential introduction.
List of contents
Abbreviations
Preface
1.Introduction
2.The Start of a New Arm
3.The First World War
4.The 1920s
5.The 1930s
6.The Second World War
7.The Early Cold War, 1946-1962
8.The Cold War: The Middle Period, 1963-1975
9.The Later Cold War, 1976-1989
10.Air Power and the Revolution in Military Affairs, 1990-2003
11.A Complex Reality, 2004-2015
12.Into the Future
13.Conclusions
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Author
About the author
Jeremy Black graduated from Cambridge University with a starred First and did graduate work at Oxford University before teaching at the University of Durham and then at the University of Exeter, where he is professor of history. He has held visiting chairs at the United States Military Academy at West Point, Texas Christian University, and Stillman College. He is a 2018 Templeton Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Black received the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize from the Society for Military History in 2008. His recent books include Air Power: A Global History; War and Technology; Naval Power: A History of Warfare and the Sea from 1500 Onwards; and Rethinking World War Two: The Conflict and Its Legacy.
Summary
This essential book offers a compelling and original interpretation of the rise of military aviation. Jeremy Black, one of the world's finest scholars of military history, provides a lucid analysis of the use of airpower over land and sea both during the two world wars and the more limited wars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
