1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910813408103321

Autore

Coffey Patrick

Titolo

American arsenal : a century of waging war / / Patrick Coffey

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Oxford ; ; NewYork : , : Oxford University Press, , [2014]

©2014

ISBN

0-19-934172-9

0-19-995975-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (337 p.)

Disciplina

355.80973

Soggetti

Inventors - United States - History - 20th century

Military research - United States

Military weapons - Research - United States - History

Military weapons - United States - History - 20th century

Weapons systems - Technological innovations - United States - History

United States History, Military 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Edison at war -- Gassing the senator -- Mitchell's war in three dimensions -- The bombsight -- Precision bombing tested -- Napalm -- The switch -- The atomic bomb -- The weapon not used -- The Cold War and the hydrogen bomb -- Missiles -- War games -- Lessons from Vietnam -- Star Wars -- Smart bombs and drones -- Epilogue.

Sommario/riassunto

When America declared war on Germany in 1917, the United States had only 200,000 men under arms, a twentieth of the German army's strength, and its planes were no match for the German air force. Less than a century later, the United States today has by far the world's largest military budget and provides over 40% of the world's armaments. In American Arsenal Patrick Coffey examines America's military transformation from an isolationist state to a world superpower. Focusing on fifteen specific developments, Coffey illustrates the unplanned, often haphazard nature of this transformation, which h