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Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British and American Ideas about Strategic Bombing, 1914-1945 Revised Edition
Contributor(s): Biddle, Tami (Author)

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 ISBN: 0691120102     ISBN-13: 9780691120102
Publisher: Princeton University Press
OUR PRICE: $50.35  

Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: September 2004
Qty:

Annotation: ""Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare" is very well written and exhaustively researched, blending primary and secondary sources in a way that will satisfy both professional historians and those who read history for pleasure. In the wake of debates about the bombings of Vietnam and of Serbia, its subject remains topical. Participants in such debates will find this an important book, as will political scientists, strategic analysts, and policymakers."--George Quester, University of Maryland

"This will be the best overall treatment of Anglo-American bombing policy that we will see for a long time. Finely written, it will have a wide readership among scholars, students, and members of the interested public."--Robert Jervis, Columbia University

"This book is a broad overview of a very important subject. Biddle's goal is to make sense of the big picture, and this is precisely what she succeeds in doing. Her judgments are honest and fair. She has an eye for striking pieces of information, and this ultimately is what gives the book its distinctive flavor. In short, this is a very impressive and useful piece of work."--Marc Trachtenberg, University of California, Los Angeles
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- History | Military - Aviation
- History | Military - Strategy
Dewey: 358.42
LCCN: 2001036865
Lexile Measure: 1620(Not Available)
Physical Information: 0.98" H x 6.08" W x 9.22" L (1.27 lbs) 416 pages
Themes:
- Chronological Period - 1900-1949
- Cultural Region - British Isles
Features: Bibliography
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

A major revision of our understanding of long-range bombing, this book examines how Anglo-American ideas about strategic bombing were formed and implemented. It argues that ideas about bombing civilian targets rested on--and gained validity from--widespread but substantially erroneous assumptions about the nature of modern industrial societies and their vulnerability to aerial bombardment. These assumptions were derived from the social and political context of the day and were maintained largely through cognitive error and bias. Tami Davis Biddle explains how air theorists, and those influenced by them, came to believe that strategic bombing would be an especially effective coercive tool and how they responded when their assumptions were challenged.

Biddle analyzes how a particular interpretation of the World War I experience, together with airmen's organizational interests, shaped interwar debates about strategic bombing and preserved conceptions of its potentially revolutionary character. This flawed interpretation as well as a failure to anticipate implementation problems were revealed as World War II commenced. By then, the British and Americans had invested heavily in strategic bombing. They saw little choice but to try to solve the problems in real time and make long-range bombing as effective as possible.

Combining narrative with analysis, this book presents the first-ever comparative history of British and American strategic bombing from its origins through 1945. In examining the ideas and rhetoric on which strategic bombing depended, it offers critical insights into the validity and robustness of those ideas--not only as they applied to World War II but as they apply to contemporary warfare.
 
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