Planning War, Pursuing Peace - (Modern War Studies) by Paul a C Koistinen (Paperback)

About the Book

The third volume in a magisterial five-volume study of the political economy of American warfare.

Book Synopsis

In the years following World War I, America's armed services, industry, and government took lessons from that conflict to enhance the country's ability to mobilize for war. Paul Koistinen examines how today's military-industrial state emerged during that period--a time when the army and navy embraced their increasing reliance on industry, and business accelerated its efforts to prepare the country for future wars.

Planning War, Pursuing Peace is the third of an extraordinary five-volume study on the political economy of American warfare. It differs from preceding volumes by examining the planning and investigation of war mobilization rather than the actual harnessing of the economy for hostilities; and it is also the first book to treat all phases of the political economy of wartime during those crucial interwar years.

Koistinen first describes and analyzes the War and Navy Departments' procurement and economic mobilization planning-never before examined in its entirety-and conveys the enormity of the task faced by the military in establishing ties with many sectors of the economy. He tells how the War Department created commodity committees to carry on the work of World War I's War Industries Board, and how both military and industrial powers strove to protect their mutual interests against those seeking to avoid war and to reform society.

Koistinen then describes the American public's struggle to come to terms with modern warfare through the in-depth explorations of the work of the House Select Committee on Expenditures in the War Department, the War Policies Commission, and the Senate Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry. He tells how these investigations alarmed pacifists, isolationists, and neo-Jeffersonians, and how they led Senator Gerald Nye and others to warn against the creation of "unhealthy alliances" between the armed services and industry.

Planning War, Pursuing Peace clearly shows how the U.S. economy was both directly and indirectly planned based on knowledge gained from World War I. By revealing vital and previously unexplored links between America's World Wars, it further illuminates the political economy of twentieth-century warfare as a complex and continually evolving process.

Review Quotes

"An important, scholarly, informative, well-written book. It is a serious treatment of an important subject. every military and civilian logistician in the armed forces and the Department of defense should read it, as should citizens who wish to be informed about such vital matters."--Armed Forces & Society

"An impressive achievement that will be of value to anyone interested in twentieth-century military history, political economy, or planning."--Journal of Military History

"Koistinen's research is not only extensive but invaluable; his evidence and analysis illuminate significant developments and patterns of the interwar years; and his major themes deserve close attention. This is an important book in an important project."--American Historical Review

"Koistinen's well-written study clarifies the importance of interwar planning to our larger historical comprehension of the two world wars and the foundation of the military-industrial complex of the post-1945 American national security state. Planning War, Pursuing Peace is essential reading for business and military historians working on twentieth-century America."--Business History Review

"I'm awed by Koistinen's grand design and outstanding research. When completed, this series will be one of the most distinguished feats of scholarship of our time."--Edward M. Coffman, author of The War to End All Wars

"An essential addition to Koistinen's ambitious enterprise and a major contribution in its own right to a neglected period in American military history."--Russell F. Weigley, author of The American Way of War