Martin van Creveld

A respected scholar of military history and an expert on strategy, Martin van Creveld recently explored the modern world's shifting method of combat in The Changing Face of War. Now, in The Culture of War, he argues that there is much more to war than just soldiers killing one another for whatever reason.War has always been a topic of deep intrigue. Fighting itself can be a source of great, perhaps even the greatest, joy; out of this joy and fascination an entire culture has grown--from the war paint of tribal warriors to today's "tiger suits," from Julius Caesar's red cloak to Douglas McArthur's pipe, from the decorative shields of ancient Greece to today's nose art, and from the invention of chess around 600 A.D. to the most modern combat simulators. The culture of war has its own traditions, laws and customs, rituals, ceremonies, music, art, literature, and monuments since the beginning of civilization.Throughout the ages, the culture of war has usually been highly esteemed. Not so in today's advanced countries, which tend either to mock it ("military intelligence is to intelligence what military music is to music") or to denounce it as "militaristic." This provocative book, the first of its kind, sets out to show how wrongheaded, and even dangerous, such attitudes are. The Culture of War argues that men and women, contrary to the hopes of some, are just as fascinated by war today as they have been in the past. A military that has lost touch with the culture of war is doomed not merely to defeat but to disintegration.Innovative, authoritative, and riveting, this is a major work by one of the world's greatest and most insightful military historians.From the Hardcover edition.

One of the most influential experts on military history and strategy has now written his magnum opus, an original and provocative account of the past hundred years of global conflict. The Changing Face of War is the book that reveals the path that led to the impasse in Iraq, why powerful standing armies are now helpless against ill-equipped insurgents, and how the security of sovereign nations may be maintained in the future. While paying close attention to the unpredictable human element, Martin van Creveld takes us on a journey from the last century’s clashes of massive armies to today’s short, high-tech, lopsided skirmishes and frustrating quagmires. Here is the world as it was in 1900, controlled by a handful of “great powers,” mostly European, with the memories of eighteenth-century wars still fresh. Armies were still led by officers riding on horses, messages conveyed by hand, drum, and bugle. As the telegraph, telephone, and radio revolutionized communications, big-gun battleships like the British Dreadnought, the tank, and the airplane altered warfare. Van Creveld paints a powerful portrait of World War I, in which armies would be counted in the millions, casualties–such as those in the cataclysmic battle of the Marne–would become staggering, and deadly new weapons, such as poison gas, would be introduced. Ultimately, Germany’s plans to outmaneuver her enemies to victory came to naught as the battle lines ossified and the winners proved to be those who could produce the most weapons and provide the most soldiers. The Changing Face of War then propels us to the even greater global carnage of World War II. Innovations in armored warfare and airpower, along with technological breakthroughs from radar to the atom bomb, transformed war from simple slaughter to a complex event requiring new expertise–all in the service of savagery, from Pearl Harbor to Dachau to Hiroshima. The further development of nuclear weapons during the Cold War shifts nations from fighting wars to deterring them: The number of active troops shrinks and the influence of the military declines as civilian think tanks set policy and volunteer forces “decouple” the idea of defense from the world of everyday people. War today, van Crevald tells us, is a mix of the ancient and the advanced, as state-of-the-art armies fail to defeat small groups of crudely outfitted guerrilla and terrorists, a pattern that began with Britain’s exit from India and culminating in American misadventures in Vietnam and Iraq, examples of what the author calls a “long, almost unbroken record of failure.” How to learn from the recent past to reshape the military for this new challenge–how to still save, in a sense, the free world–is the ultimate lesson of this big, bold, and cautionary work. The Changing Face of War is sure to become the standard source on this essential subject. (Source: [Penguin Random House](

"Around 1905 a small group of Jews, having escaped the pogroms in their native Russia, found themselves refugees in a foreign country. Surrounded by hostile Arabs, they banded together in a small group known as Ha-shomer - "The Guard." From these humble beginnings, the renowned Israeli Defense Force was born, and over the course of the 20th century proved itself to be one of the greatest armed forces of all time. Again and again, often against overwhelming odds, it defeated its enemies in victories so dramatic that the IDF assumed mythical status. Behind every myth, however, there is a reality. Israel's forces have suffered defeat in recent years - most notably in Lebanon in 1982 - and some of the successes have come at a great cost to morale. The events of the second Intifada have even led some to ask if Israel is now the Goliath, and no longer the David of the region: powerful, arrogant, and vulnerable.". "In the Sword and the Olive, military historian Martin van Creveld offers the first complete history of the IDF in a generation. The Sword and the Olive is a history of one army as the history of a nation."--BOOK JACKET.

Throughout history, revolutions have been a potent force of social, economic and political change. The Encyclopedia of Revolutions and Revolutionaries: From Anarchism to Zhou Enlai is the first single-volume encyclopedia devoted to this significant historical phenomenon. Written by a team of international scholars, the book's more than 500 entries cover periods of unrest and change from antiquity to the present, including the Spartacus Revolt; the European Revolutions of 1848; China's Cultural Revolution; the American Revolution; the United Kingdom's Glorious Revolution of 1688; Mexico's Cristero Revolution of 1926-1929; and Russia's Revolutions in 1905 and 1917. Also profiled are the individuals who figured prominently in the tumultuous events of their time: Che Guevara in Cuba; Robespierre in France; Thomas Paine and Ethan Allen in the United States; Vaclav Havel in the Czech Republic; Benito Mussolini in Italy; Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam; Pancho Villa in Mexico; Mohandas Gandhi in India; and many more. Encompassing history and the world, The Encyclopedia of Revolutions and Revolutionaries brings to life the forms of revolutions and resistance movements undertaken to effect fundamental societal change; the non-violent and passive demonstrations that have transformed the world; and the intellectual and economic upheavals that have shaped human thought and institutions.

The authors identify and discuss the fundamental concepts and principles of maneuver warfare, compare and contrast it to attrition-style warfare, and trace its origins and history. They examine the role of airpower in enhancing maneuver during the early German campaigns of World War II, in Germany's 1941 Russian campaigns, and in the Soviet version of maneuver warfare in World War II. They analyze the importance of airpower in maneuver warfare employed by Israel in the 1967 and 1973 wars and by coalition forces in the Gulf War. Dr. van Creveld forecasts what the role of airpower will be in warfare during the coming years. The book includes a response to the authors by the air doctrine analysts at Air University.

At a time when unprecedented change in international affairs is forcing governments, citizens, and armed forces everywhere to re-assess the question of whether military solutions to political problems are possible any longer, Martin van Creveld has written an audacious searching examination of the nature of war and of its radical transformation in our own time. -- Published description.

This text provides an analysis of the impact of technology on warfare throughout the centuries.

"Martin van Creveld's Moshe Dayan tells the story of one man and of one people, to whom he was a figurehead - a symbol of their patriotism and their determination to survive. Born in a kibbutz in 1915, Dayan joined the Hagana when he was twenty-one years old, starting a military career that saw him serve in every war fought in the Middle East from the War of Israeli Independence in 1948 to the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Twice he led his country's forces into smashing victories. Having planned and executed the one and directed the other, 'with his one eye he towers over them like Nelson over the Battle of Trafalgar'." "Skilled in battle, skilled in diplomacy, Moshe Dayan, like many powerful public figures, had a private life that was far from mundane. The book quotes from some little-known sources, including accounts written by two of his mistresses, that reveal much about his character and his life away from the battlefield. This is an honest portrayal of both the private and the public figure, which seeks to understand a man whose contribution to the state of Israel in its developing years was immeasurable."--BOOK JACKET.

Deep in the control room the nation's chiefs watch with alarm as their computers show an imminent missile attack. Could this be it? Or is the truth funnier, thought almost as alarming? This is the story, based on the successful movie, WarGames, of how one young computer freak sent the nation's defence into turmoil - and nearly caused World War III.