Pure Logistics: The Science of War Preparation

We place a premium on forward-looking military thought, but a reflective look at literature from the past can also be useful, especially when that literature marks the intellectual heritage of American planning for national defense. At the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, one of the accepted classics of military literature is Pure Logistics: The Science of War Preparation, written by Lieutenant Colonel George C. Thorpe of the United States Marine Corps and published originally in 1917. In his introduction to this new edition of Thorpe's work, Stanley L. Falk tells us Pure Logistics stands out as a milestone between the seminal writings of Baron de Jomini, published one hundred years before, and later treatises examining logistics following World War II. Thorpe's observations and recommendations in Pure Logistics have held up over time, even in the face of the technological advances of nearly seventy years. His call for preparation in peacetime to accelerate defense industrial production in the event of war is as valid today as it was in 1917. Our hope is that both planners and scholars will discover - or rediscover, perhaps - Thorpe's fundamental and useful work.

Albin G. Wheeler

Major General, United States Army

Commandant, Industrial College of the Armed Forces