Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military
From: howard@cos.com (Howard C. Berkowitz)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: West Point Series
Summary: Very basic
Message-ID: <7482@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 15 Jun 89 03:53:37 GMT
References: <7344@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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From: howard@cos.com (Howard C. Berkowitz)

In article <7344@cbnews.ATT.COM>, chenj@cmcl2.NYU.EDU (James Chen) writes:
> 
> 	As an armchair soldier I've been interested in finding
> a book or series of books with a total vision of war.  Most works
> are concerned with either a specific person, place, time, or weapon.
> I wanted an overview or an outline.  Something like such and such
> happened here which cause these people to invent this which led
> to that or the other.  I'm aware that such works will have their
> the West Point series.  What is the general net view on this series?
> 


I looked at the West Point series in a bookstore, and found them very
elementary, seemingly (in a few glances) at the level of a high school
(perhaps honors) history course.

For surveys, JFC Fuller's _A Military History of the Western World_
is probably better.

For the consequences of warfare, or the reasons for going to same, 
several things come to mind.  Fred Ikle's _Every War Must End_
is outstanding in analyzing such things as the German and Japanese
strategic overreach in WWII, and generally dealing with the concept
of knowing the conditions of victory and of defeat before starting
wars.  Henry Kissinger's _Essays on American Foreign Policy_ has
some interesting concepts on negotiating behavior.  Several things
by John Keegan, such as _The Face of Battle_, deal with styles of
warfare (but he keeps getting the things printed in UNREADABLE fonts!).
Morris Janowitz's _The Professional Soldier_ deals with motivation
on a personal level.


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