From Crossbow to H-Bomb

Bernard Brodie and Fawn M. Brodie

Bloomington: Indiana University Press; Revised and enlarged edition; ISBN: 0-253-20161-6; Pages: 320

This widely-known study of the evolutions of arms and military tactics is among the better entries in the saturated field of military history. The authors do a fine job of tracking the developments in armaments and engineering since the 17th century (there are two chapters on antiquity and the Middle Ages), and their emphasis is on the interaction of engineering knowledge and military needs. These chapters are of passing interest to most readers, especially if they have access to books like Addington's Patterns of Warfare, and it is in the chapters on the two world wars and the nuclear revolution that the book perhaps earns the praise often lavished at it.

These chapters trace the reciprocal relationship between science and the military. The Brodies track the increasing role basic research has played in the development of novel weapons, and in turn (although they do not emphasize it too much), how military research has helped advance scientific knowledge. Of course, this particular trend has now become the standard and it is almost unthinkable to imagine the progress made by 20th century science without the funding and impetus provided by military needs. Both in the USSR and the USA, a lot of the consumer goods (microwaves, computers, etc.) have had their genesis in labs serving military (or NASA) needs. The only shortcoming here is the almost total lack of discussion of scientists' political roles and the controversies surrounding some of their work.

There are illustrations scattered throughout the book that leave much to be desired. Often, the choice of weapons to portray is baffling and there are no pictures. The style is a bit rambling and there seem to be quite a few extraneous passages (for example, I do not know how many readers would be interested in the basic research that made the nuclear weapons possible---the story, as the authors acknowledge, is better told by others, at length, and the synopsis they give barely scratches the surface while taking up space that should have been devoted to the use of these weapons).

Despite the several passages in the last chapter (the 1962-1972 update), the most glaring deficiency of the book is the scant attention paid to the interaction of weaponry and military thought. While the nuclear revolution was (at the time of writing) the most recent and of immense importance, it was not the only profound one. Not much is said about the effect of railroads on logistics, and the impact of new arms on tactics, not to mention strategy. The book is also now out of date, especially in its post-World War II section, where declassified material has improved our knowledge and where the more recent technological improvements, especially computers, have again changed the face of war.

October 13, 2003