Rhetoric and reality in air warfare : the evolution of British and American ideas about strategic bombing, 1914-1945 / Tami Davis Biddle.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Biddle, Tami Davis, 1959-

Series:

Princeton studies in international history and politics.

Princeton studies in international history and politics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Air power--Great Britain--History.

Air power.

Air power--United States--History.

Bombing, Aerial--History.

Bombing, Aerial.

World War, 1914-1918--Aerial operations, American.

World War, 1914-1918.

World War, 1914-1918--Aerial operations, British.

World War, 1939-1945--Aerial operations, American.

World War, 1939-1945.

World War, 1939-1945--Aerial operations, British.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (416 p.)

Edition:

Core Textbook

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ ; Woodstock : Princeton University Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One. The Beginning: Strategic Bombing in the First World War

Chapter Two. Britain in the Interwar Years

Chapter Three. The United States in the Interwar Years

Chapter Four. Rhetoric and Reality, 1939-1942

Chapter Five. The Combined Bomber Offensive, 1943-1945

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography of Archival Sources

Index

Notes:

Originally published: 2002.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612087257

9781400814145

1400814146

9781282087255

1282087258

9781400824977

1400824974

OCLC:

505088752