Command in War

van Creveld, Martin

ISBN 10: 0674144406 / ISBN 13: 9780674144408

Published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1985

About this Item

339, maps, notes, bibliography, index, slight wear to edges of DJ, rear DJ scuffed, top board corners somewhat bumped. Martin Levi van Creveld (born 5 March 1946) is an Israeli military historian and theorist. In 1950, his family immigrated to Israel, and Creveld grew up in Ramat Gan. From 1964 to 1969, he studied history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and earned an MA. From 1969-71, he studied history at the London School of Economics and received a Ph.D. Van Creveld's doctoral dissertation on Hitler's strategy in the Balkans during the early years of World War II was published as a book in 1973: "Hitler's Strategy, 1940-41. The Balkan Clue." After completing his Ph.D. in 1971, van Creveld returned to Israel and began teaching at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He became a professor in 1988. In 2007, he began teaching at Tel Aviv University's Security Studies Program. Van Creveld has lectured or taught at countless civilian and military institutes of higher learning all over the world. This is the first book to deal exclusively with the nature of command itself, and to trace its development over two thousand years from ancient Greece to Vietnam. It treats the whole variety of problems involved in commanding armies, including organization and administration, communications methods and technologies, weaponry, and logistics. And it analyzes the relationship between these and military strategy. In vivid descriptions of key battles and campaigns, he focuses on the means of command and shows how those means worked in practice. He finds that technological advances all brought commanders not only new tactical possibilities but also new limitations. The one constant has been the search for certainty--about the state and intentions of the enemy; about the environment in which war is fought; and about the state, and activities of one's forces. The book concludes that progress has usually been achieved less by employing technologies than by finding ways to transcend the limitations of existing ones. Seller Inventory # 14639

Bibliographic Details

Title: Command in War

Publisher: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

Publication Date: 1985

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very good

Dust Jacket Condition: Good

Edition: First Printing.

About this title

Synopsis:

Many books have been written about strategy, tactics, and great commanders. This is the first book to deal exclusively with the nature of command itself, and to trace its development over two thousand years from ancient Greece to Vietnam. It treats historically the whole variety of problems involved in commanding armies, including staff organization and administration, communications methods and technologies, weaponry, and logistics. And it analyzes the relationship between these problems and military strategy.

In vivid descriptions of key battles and campaigns--among others, Napoleon at Jena, Moltke's Königgrätz campaign, the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, and the Americans in Vietnam--van Creveld focuses on the means of command and shows how those means worked in practice. He finds that technological advances such as the railroad, breech-loading rifles, the telegraph and later the radio, tanks, and helicopters all brought commanders not only new tactical possibilities but also new limitations.

Although vast changes have occurred in military thinking and technology, the one constant has been an endless search for certainty--certainty about the state and intentions of the enemy's forces; certainty about the manifold factors that together constitute the environment in which war is fought, from the weather and terrain to radioactivity and the presence of chemical warfare agents; and certainty about the state, intentions, and activities of one's own forces. The book concludes that progress in command has usually been achieved less by employing more advanced technologies than by finding ways to transcend the limitations of existing ones.

About the Author:

Martin van Creveld was born in the Netherlands in 1946 and has lived in Israel from 1950. Having studied in Jerusalem and London, since 1971 he has been on the faculty of the History Department, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. A specialist in military history and strategy, he is the author of 20 books, including "The Land of Blood and Honey" and "Defending Israel", and has appeared regularly on CBS, CNN and the BBC.