Military, Scientific, and Technological

The Origins of Victory: How Disruptive Military Innovation Determines the Fates of Great Powers BY ANDREW F. KREPINEVICH, JR. Yale University Press, 2023, 568 pp.

Krepinevich, an influential figure in U.S. military circles, offers an update on the development of his ideas since he first came to the fore in the early 1990s, when he highlighted

“the revolution in military-technical affairs” as militaries began marshaling sensors, advanced communications systems, and accurate weapons to more efficiently use their firepower. He now argues that the United States no longer enjoys the competitive advantage it gained from the innovations of the 1990s. Other countries have caught up in adopting their own systems of precision warfare. To regain its edge, the United States will need to find the next form of disruptive innovation, whether through artificial intelligence, quantum computing, synthetic biology, or hypersonics. He turns to past cases for guidance: the Royal Navy’s commitment to Dreadnought-class ships in the early twentieth century, for instance, followed by the U.S. embrace of aircraft carriers; the revival of the German army after its defeat in World War I; and the creation of the “precision system” by the United States, starting with Vietnam and ending with Desert Storm in 1991. His analysis is full of absorbing detail although his approach risks overstating technology as the driver of change. Perhaps wisely, he has not yet sought to incorporate lessons from the Russian war in Ukraine, although these might challenge some of his assumptions.

Holding Their Breath: How the Allies Confronted the Threat of Chemical Warfare in World War II

BY M. GIRARD DORSEY. Cornell University Press, 2023, 306 pp.

The 1925 Geneva Protocol banning the use of poison gas grew out of the revulsion the weapon caused during World War I. Countries agreed to

the ban despite claims that poison gas was more humane than other weapons—and despite the lack of any means of enforcing the ban other than retaliating in kind. Other international agreements, such as the 1936 Second London Naval Treaty that granted merchant vessels some protection against submarines, collapsed, but this protocol held during World War II. The major powers continued to develop chemical weapons, and the British government took the precaution of distributing gas masks to the population. Still, no chemical weapons were used in combat during the war. Drawing on extensive research in British, Canadian, and U.S. archives, Dorsey demonstrates that these countries actively considered using poison gas, with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill most willing to deploy it. Dorsey shows that although Allied leaders were aware of the normative and legal constraints preventing them from turning to the weapon, they discussed its possible use in planning for a German invasion of the United Kingdom in 1940, the liberation of occupied Europe in 1944, responses to the V-1 and V-2 missile attacks on London, and the invasion of Japan.

Original Sin: Power, Technology, and War in Outer Space

BY BLEDDYN E. BOWEN. Oxford University Press, 2023, 256 pp.

The “original sin” of the book’s title is that space technologies were developed not for the collective benefit of humankind but for their military applications. Bowen sees the associated technologies as tainted and worries that space has become a competitive and dangerous domain. But he acknowledges that as sins go, this one may not be wholly original. Terrestrial affairs have also long been influenced by military considerations. To stick with the biblical metaphor, this book is a comprehensive and thorough account of the particular “fall” of developing space-related technologies with military uses. Bowen accepts that there can be no return to a lost Eden but hopes that countries can avoid militarizing space so much that they lose opportunities for beneficial cooperation. He notes that space-based military systems can be used in earthly conflicts, and he insists that space should not be imagined as a military “high ground” where battles will be fought far removed from earth but rather as a “coastal or littoral zone” close to terra firma.

Brave Men

BY ERNIE PYLE. Penguin Random House, 2023, 544 pp.

The Soldier’s Truth: Ernie Pyle and the Story of World War II

BY DAVID CHRISINGER. Penguin Random House, 2023, 400 pp.

Two books revisit the life and vision of Pyle, one of the great American war correspondents of World War II. He reported from across the globe, from the battle of Britain in 1940 to his death during the battle of Okinawa in early 1945. His interest was less in strategy and tactics than in the human side of war. He opted for a “worm’s eye view,” he said, fascinated by how

ordinary people, especially his beloved infantrymen, coped with the demands of long and grueling campaigns. The welcome republication of Brave Men, his 1944 book based on his dispatches from the Allied landings in Sicily, Anzio (near Rome), and Normandy, and their aftermaths, demonstrate why he found such a large and appreciative audience. In sharp, simple prose, Pyle explained to those back home the conditions of life and death on the front. The writing remains fresh and perceptive, with short descriptions of the personalities and backgrounds of those he met but also helpful details on the work of engineers constructing routes past damaged bridges and the role of frontline medics.

Brave Men is introduced by Chrisinger, whose own book investigates what it was that drove Pyle to keep returning to the front to endure all its associated dangers, privations, and stresses when he could otherwise have enjoyed his house in New Mexico and made the most of his professional and financial success. Chrisinger points to Pyle’s natural affinity for frontline soldiers and his desire to tell their stories but also to his complicated personal life. His wife, Jenny, had bipolar disorder and was, on occasion, suicidal. Pyle had his own struggles, with bouts of depression and drinking. This book is not a full-scale biography, but with liberal quotes from Pyle’s columns and letters home to his wife and friends, it is a nicely constructed and well-written account of these critical years of the war. Chrisinger travels to the sites of the landings and battles that the war correspondent covered 80 years ago to see what remains and to provide more context than Pyle could about why and how those battles were fought.