World War II in the Context of History and Modern Warfare

The 20th Century was simultaneously a Century of exceptional advancement and unsurpassed violence. Why was this a Century of incomparable violence? The quick answer is that we, as a human race, used many of our advancements to become far more efficient killers; where advancements of prior centuries allowed armies to kill tens of thousands, the advancements of the 20th Century enabled armies to kill tens of millions. The longer answer involves military technological revolutions, military inventions used in World War II, business methods that drastically increased war production, the transformation of national wealth to effective fighting power, and the conversion of civilian moral energies into the will to win. Keegan, Overy, Ferguson and Weinberg, in turn, either support those conclusions or, at the very least, do not deny them.

Analysis:

a. The Four Military Technological Revolutions

Knox and Williamson...
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