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In the School of War

In the School of War

In the School of War

In the School of War

Overview

Fort Leavenworth, where Roger J. Spiller taught the army’s finest for twenty-five years, is indeed a “school of war.” There, among military professionals who had experienced war firsthand, Spiller honed his remarkable skills as an analyst and historian, scholar and teacher—skills that have made him one of the best-known and respected military historians of our day. This volume brings together Spiller’s original and thought-provoking explorations of wars big and small and armies glorified and ignored. For each of these essays—whether on urban warfare or the Vietnam syndrome, battlefield psychology or the making of military history, and underrated vs. overrated generals—Spiller revisits his topic and his thinking, bringing fresh insight and a new context to an incomparable body of work. In the School of War further reveals the complex relationship between past and present in an understanding of the nature of war.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780803228160
Publisher: Bison Original
Publication date: 06/01/2010
Series: Studies in War, Society, and the Military
Pages: 428
Product dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author


Roger J. Spiller is the George C. Marshall Distinguished Professor of Military History (retired) at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He is the author or editor of numerous publications, including his latest work, An Instinct for War: Scenes from the Battlefields of History. Most recently, he was an advisor for Ken Burns’s PBS documentary, The War. John W. Shy, professor emeritus of history at the University of Michigan, is the author of A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections on the Military Struggle for American Independence.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Introduction xiii

Part 1 On Combat

Introduction 3

1 Isen's Run: Human Dimensions of Warfare in the Twentieth Century (1988) 13

2 My Guns (1991) 29

3 S. L. A. Marshall and the Ratio of Fire (1991) 44

4 The Price of Valor (1993) 68

5 Cherry Blossoms Falling: Japanese Combat Behavior at War's End (1999) 87

6 The Psychological Battlefield (2005) 118

Part 2 In the School of War

Introduction 143

7 War History and the History Wars: Establishing the Combat Studies Institute (1988) 159

8 Armies in History, History in Armies (2001) 183

9 The Vietnam Syndrome: A Brief History (2002) 199

10 In the Shadow of the Dragon: Doctrine and the U.S. Army after Vietnam (1997) 220

11 Urban Warfare: Its History and Its Future (1003) 258

Part 3 Going Public

Introduction 275

12 Overrated and Underrated: General (1998) 283

13 Overrated and Underrated: World War II General (2002) 285

14 War in the Dark (1999) 287

15 A War against History (2001) 301

Part 4 Experimental History

Introduction 311

16 Military History and Its Fictions (2006) 319

17 The Führer in the Dock: A Speculation on the Banality of Evil (2001) 339

18 The Real War: An Interview with Paul Fussell (1989) 360

19 Rain Stops Play (2005) 378

Acknowledgments 399

Source Acknowledgments 401

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