Book ID: CBB001212488

Beneficial Bombing: The Progressive Foundations of American Air Power, 1917--1945 (2010)

unapi

Clodfelter, Mark (Author)


University of Nebraska Press


Publication Date: 2010
Physical Details: xii + 347 pp.; ill.; bibl.; index
Language: English

"The Progressive Era, marked by a desire for economic, political, and social reform, ended for most Americans with the ugly reality and devastation of World War I. Yet for Army Air Service officers, the carnage and waste witnessed on the western front only served to spark a new progressive movement--to reform war by relying on destructive technology as the instrument of change. In Beneficial Bombing Mark Clodfelter describes how American airmen, horrified by World War I's trench warfare, turned to the progressive ideas of efficiency and economy in an effort to reform war itself, with the heavy bomber as their solution to limiting the bloodshed. They were convinced that the airplane, used as a bombing platform, offered the means to make wars less lethal than conflicts waged by armies or navies. Clodfelter examines the progressive idealism that led to the creation of the U.S. Air Force and its doctrine that the finite destruction of precision bombing would end wars more quickly and with less suffering for each belligerent. What is more, his work shows how these progressive ideas emerged intact after World War II to become the foundation of modern U.S. Air Force doctrine. Drawing on a wealth of archival material, including critical documents unavailable to previous researchers, Clodfelter presents the most complete analysis ever of the doctrinal development underpinning current U.S. Air Force notions about strategic bombing."--BOOK JACKET.

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Reviewed By

Review Hillman, Elizabeth L. (2012) Review of "Beneficial Bombing: The Progressive Foundations of American Air Power, 1917--1945". American Historical Review (pp. 1611-1613). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001212488/

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Authors & Contributors
Zannoni, Fabrizio
Mark C. Wilkins
Lindgjerdet, Frode
Marconi, Francesco
Versiero, Marco
Gallo, Marzia
Journals
Air Power History
Vulcan
Technology and Culture
Technikgeschichte: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Technik und Industrie
Journal of the History of Dentistry
Publishers
Pen and Sword Books
Casemate
Casa Editrice Persiani
Gaspari Editore
University of Nebraska Press
Smithsonian Books
Concepts
Technology and war; technology and the military
Military technology
World War II
Bombs and bombing
Air warfare
Aircraft; airplanes
People
Douhet, Giulio
Bullard, Eugene Jacques
Leonardo da Vinci
Time Periods
20th century, early
20th century
20th century, late
Renaissance
Medieval
21st century
Places
United States
Japan
Italy
France
Turin (Italy)
Norway
Institutions
United States Marine Corps
United States. Army
United States Navy
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