The Conduct Of War, 1789-1961 A Study Of The Impact Of The French, Industrial, And Russian Revolutions On War And Its Conduct

by Fuller, J. F. C.

• ISBN13: 9780306804670
• ISBN10: 0306804670
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1992-03-22
• Publisher: Da Capo Press

Summary

The Conduct of Waris the study of the way in which political and economical changes since the French Revolution have altered both the techniques and the aims of war, and its theme is that war which is not fought in pursuance of a clear feasible policy will always end in disaster. Fuller begins by examining the limited wars that were possible in the age of absolute rulers, and the destructive impact of revolutionary and democratic government on this state of affairs. Not only did the new armies of the Napoleonic age grow immensely in size and military power; the aims for which war was fought began to change. It was no longer a question of forcing the enemy government to alter its policy in specific ways; the purpose of war became the destruction of that government and the absolute surrender of its people. Such a concept of war, Fuller contends, is a disastrous return to barbarism. Each war leads inevitably to a state of instability which will persist and worsen until a new conflict breaks out. Fuller was an ardent admirer of Clausewitz'sOn War,and in his book, he develops Clausewitz's theories of limited war to show their applicability to the history of modern warfare. Although some of Fuller's more extreme political views are now discredited,The Conduct of Warremains one of the seminal works of 20th-century military theory.

Author Biography

Major General J.F.C. Fuller (1878-1966) was one of the most important and original military thinkers of this century. He served as lieutenant in the Boer War, organized the first British tank corps in World War I, and developed the strategy and tactics of tank warfare which were later put to such effective use by the Nazis for their World War II blitzkriegs. His many books include A Military History of the Western World (3 volumes), The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant, Julius Caesar: Man, Soldier, and Tyrant, and The Generalship of Alexander the Great, all of which are available from Da Capo Press/Perseus Book Group.

Table of Contents

Preface	11	(4)
The Limited Wars of the Absolute Kings	15	(11)
The Thirty Years' War and the Italian Condottieri
The Jurists and the Limitation of War
The Armies of the Absolute Kings
Limited Warfare
The Rebirth of Unlimited War	26	(16)
Rousseau and the French Revolution
Conscription a Return to Barbarism
The Changes due to Conscription
Democracy and Tribal Morality
Napoleonic Warfare	42	(17)
Napoleon Bonaparte
The Elements of Napoleonic Warfare
The Principles of Napoleonic Warfare
The Defects of Napoleonic Warfare
The Theories of Clausewitz	59	(18)
Karl von Clausewitz
What is War?
Absolute and Real War
War as an Instrument of Policy
Grand Strategy and the Centre of Gravity
The Principles of War
The Defensive as the Stronger Form of War
The Decisive Battle
The People's War
Clausewitz's disregard of Napoleonic Warfare
The Influences of the Industrial Revolution	77	(18)
Impact of the Revolution on Civilization
Impact of the Revolution on Society
Karl Marx and the Class Struggle
Impact of the Revolution on Military Power
The American Civil War 1861-1865	95	(18)
Impact of the Industrial Revolution on the United States
The Character of the Civil War
The Strategical Problems
Tactical Developments
Moral Retrogression
Results of the War
Moltke, Foch, and Bloch	113	(18)
Field-Marshal von Moltke
Marshal Ferdinand Foch
Mr I. S. Bloch
The Roots of Armageddon	131	(20)
The Overseas Expansion of Western Europe
Military Developments 1870-1903
The Last of the Wars of Expansion
Discords and Concords
The Conduct of World War I	151	(32)
Policy and War
Fate of the War Plans
Strategy of Evasion
Strategy of Attrition
Rebirth of Mobility
Collapse on the Inner Fronts
Lenin and the Russian Revolution	183	(19)
Lenin and the March Revolution
`The State and the Revolution.'
Lenin and the October Revolution
The End of Utopianism
Soviet Revolutionary Warfare	202	(15)
Politics and War
Lenin and Clausewitz
The Third (Communist) International
Peace as an Instrument of Revolution
The Twenty Years Armistice	217	(31)
The Carthaginian Peace
Adolf Hitler
Hitler's Foreign Policy
The Road to War
Tactical Theories and Fallacies
The Conduct of World War II	248	(62)
Character of World War II
Allied War Policy 1939-1940
Blitzkrieg 1940
The Russian and German Inner Fronts
President Roosevelt's anti-Japanese and pro-Russian Policies
The Strategical Grand Climacteric
The Strategic Bombing of Germany
The Architects of Disaster
Surrender to Russia
The Tactical Grand Climacteric
Defeat through Victory
The Problem of Peace	310	(24)
Retrospect
Impact of Nuclear Energy on War
Policies and the Cold War
The Third World War
Impact of Technology on Social Life
The Problem of China
Appendices	334	(11)
I Lenin and the Peasantry
II President Wilson's Fourteen Points, Four Principles and Five Particulars
III The Atlantic Charter
IV The United Nations Pact
V The Moscow Communist Conference of November 1960
VI Communist Propaganda in West Germany
Index	345