American Military Technology: The Life Story of a Technology (review)

The study of military-technological change in its broadest social, political, economic, and cultural context is a prominent feature of some of the best specialized studies in the modern history of military technology. This slim volume seeks to bring that same perspective to an introductory survey of American military technology. It focuses not only on the U.S. military’s development of weapons but also on its creation of new organizations, adoption of novel management techniques, and formulation of innovative doctrine to employ those weapons. The development of military medicine also figures prominently. The central focus, however, is the rise of formal institutions to organize, fund, and direct scientific research and engineering to meet military needs. The book argues that the success during World War II of new organizations designed to mobilize the sciences to serve military purposes permanently transformed relations among American military, technological, and scientific institutions. The result of this transformation has been a formidable albeit extraordinarily expensive military arsenal and a perhaps overenthusiastic faith in the apparent benefits of permanent technological revolution.

As an introductory text, the volume includes several features that should prove interesting and useful for readers new to the subject. Interspersed throughout the text are capsule biographies of well-known figures in the history of American military technology such as Eli Whitney, Orville and Wilbur Wright, and Vannevar Bush, and of lesser-known figures such as Julia Stimson, superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps during the interwar era, and William McLean, the designer of the Sidewinder missile. The book also provides a very basic glossary, a detailed timeline highlighting important technological advances, organizational changes, political events, and individual contributions, and an excellent bibliography divided into historical periods with listings of reference works, essay collections, and monographs for each period.

The book also suffers some of the flaws common to broad, introductory surveys. It is occasionally repetitive; the military-scientific collaboration that produced the first atomic bomb is described as the paradigm of research in the service of war several times. Similarly, the findings of Project Hindsight, a 1966 study to assess the contribution of basic science to weapons system development, are recounted twice. In addition, the book tends to gloss over complicated or controversial historiographical issues. The role of experimentation and testing in the development of American naval aviation, for example, and the effectiveness of airpower in Kosovo receive little attention. Finally, the text, like any survey, ceases its coverage on a specific date. Unfortunately, the authors chose to end their study in 2000, before the events of September 11, 2001, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq raised serious questions regarding the advantages of American technological superiority and the effectiveness of the institutions that have made it possible.

Minor quibbles aside, the broad coverage and integrative approach of this survey, combined with its attractive packaging and price, will make it a useful text for introductory courses in U.S. military history and the history of technology.