Instrumental in War: Science, Research, and Instruments Between Knowledge and the World (History of Warfare,): 28 - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9004142819 ISBN 13: 9789004142817

Publisher: Brill, 2005

Synopsis

Scientific research and instrumentation are crucial for military action today but they have not always been so. This collection investigates 500 years of the relationship between warfare, research, and instruments - both physical and intellectual - to understand this interaction. With U.S., English and French examples, contributors provide examples from army and naval history to show how governments and individuals made warfare scientific, developing instruments, stations, and organizations that furthered the cause. Some developments directly aided war efforts; others were parts of 'normal science' in peacetime; and others were relatively ineffective in directly bringing about military change. These developmental histories shed light on the origins of modern scientific warfare.

Contributors: Steven A. Walton; William A. Lynch; Jamel Ostwald; Seymour H. Mauskopf; James R. Fleming; Gerard P. Scharfenberger; William M. McBride; David Alan Grier; Sebastien Soubiran; Kenton Kroker; Deborah J. Warner; Peter Galison.

About this title

About the Author

Steven A. Walton, Ph.D. (1999), Toronto, teaches Science, Technology, and Society at Penn State University. Working on the intersection of military technology and scientific understanding, he currently is working on renaissance gunnery, nineteenth-century American ordnance manufacture, and post-Civil War torpedo research.

Edition details

• Publisher: Brill
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004142819
• ISBN 13: 9789004142817
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416
• Editor: Walton Steven