Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/September 2015/Book reviews




 * By Hawkeye7

Not a lot has been written about the economics of warfare. Although it covers a whole century, this is a comprehensive, but by no means exhaustive, coverage of the subject. A lot more could have been said about many of the topics covered; but as it is, some parts might be heavy going for a reader without a grounding in economics. And unfortunately, that's most people, because economics never made it onto the list of compulsory high school subjects. Which is a pity, because much of the news of the day revolves around economic issues. In fact, it is up there among the leading reasons that democracy is on the wane in the English-speaking world. Complicating matters is that economic policy instruments have become more complicated over time, frequently obfuscating what is happening.

Following the economic principle that there ain't no such thing as a free lunch, wars have to be paid for. There are three basic ways of governments paying for anything. They can raise taxes; they can borrow money; and they can print money. As the book points out, the norm in the United States in the 20th century was to use a combination of all three. For some reason, paying for wars was never as popular with the tax-paying classes as going to war in the first place, but as the book points out, astute politicians can tap into relatively popular taxes like excess profits taxes, since war profiteering is frowned on by the public at large. Borrowing money, usually by issuing war bonds, seems politically safer, but it means that the taxpayers pay the rich a premium for using their money. Printing money may sound attractive, but all it means is that there is more cash and its value gets diluted, a process we call inflation. When used in combination with borrowing, as was done during World War I and World War II, it serves to rip off the bond holders, as the value of their bonds is eaten away by inflation.

If you have a passing interest in the subject, then I am recommending this book. Publishing details:




 * By Hawkeye7

When I started reading this, I feared that it might be a quick recap of the B-29 air raids on Japan. This is quite a story, and there are some good books about it. This is not one of them. After a rocky start, this book homes in on one particular aspect of the aerial campaign, namely the switch from precision bombing to area bombing with incendiaries. Before the war, the Bomber Mafia espoused precision bombing and industrial web theory. This was pursued at great cost in the war against Germany, and then in the air raids on Japan. Many accounts make it sound as if precision bombing was abandoned in favour of fire bombing; this book makes it clear that this was not what happened at all. Precision bombing was never abandoned, and continued to the end. Some books make it sound like Curtis LeMay made all the decisions; this book looks more closely at who did what. The book is a great account of the details of aerial strategy.

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 * By AustralianRupert



Thunder of the Hooves is a history of the Australian 12th Light Horse Regiment, focusing specifically upon that regiment's involvement in the First World War. Published by Australian Military History Publications, the book was written by Kenneth Hollis, who served in the regiment's successor unit, the 12/16th Hunter River Lancers as a sergeant. Realising that the unit did not have a written account of its battle history, Hollis set about completing the task himself. In doing so, he has attempted to weave information gleaned from several sources – the official histories, the war diaries and the personal reflections of veterans whom he interviewed – into a comprehensive narrative. In addition to the narrative of the regiment's involvement in the war, the author has also included several helpful appendices, detailing honours and awards, citations, after action reports, short biographies of key personnel, and a comprehensive nominal roll, which family researchers will appreciate. The work provides a good level of detail, although in some places the book's narrow focus may impact upon a reader's understanding of wider concepts. Overall, though, a great resource for writing an article on the regiment and for understanding some of the personal hardships that soldiers go through during wartime.

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