Layering for a Cold War: The M-1943 Combat System, Military Testing, and Clothing as Technology (April 2019)
This article analyzes a World War II-era Army field jacket and the principle of layering it represents as a technology of war. The M-1943 jacket, designed in military laboratories and issued to soldiers in the European Theater, represents a scientized approach to layering clothing developed on test expeditions and in new research and development laboratories run by the Quartermaster Corps. Drawing on both histories of technology and histories of design, this article shows how the M-43 jacket operated as part of a broader assemblage of testing facilities, institutions, and individuals. The debate within the Army about how best to equip soldiers points to the struggle to control the growing authority of scientific expertise in the military bureaucracy. The science of dress, more than personal or subjective experience, shaped how the American military equipped soldiers for war and contributed to the expansion of military research laboratories in the Cold War.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Brian E. Crim;
(2018)
Our Germans: Project Paperclip and the National Security State
(/isis/citation/CBB389750546/)
Book
Lori A. Henning;
(2019)
Harnessing the Airplane: American and British Cavalry Responses to a New Technology, 1903-1939
(/isis/citation/CBB246948205/)
Article
Colin A Ross;
(2017)
LSD experiments by the United States Army
(/isis/citation/CBB313699629/)
Book
Roberto J. González;
(2022)
War Virtually: The Quest to Automate Conflict, Militarize Data, and Predict the Future
(/isis/citation/CBB827413331/)
Book
Frandsen, Bert;
(2003)
Hat in the Ring: The Birth of American Air Power in the Great War
(/isis/citation/CBB000830917/)
Article
Anthony Eames;
(July 2021)
A "Corruption of British Science?": The Strategic Defense Initiative and British Technology Policy
(/isis/citation/CBB625249269/)
Article
Angevine, Robert G.;
(2001)
Individuals, Organizations, and Engineering: U.S. Army Officers and the American Railroads, 1827-1838
(/isis/citation/CBB000100974/)
Thesis
Haworth, William B.;
(1995)
The Bradley and how it got that way: Mechanized infantry organization and equipment in the United States Army
(/isis/citation/CBB001565522/)
Article
Parmentola, John A.;
(Fall 2004)
Army Transformation: Paradigm-Shifting Capabilities through Biotechnology
(/isis/citation/CBB828046022/)
Book
Hoffman, Jon T.;
(2009)
A History of Innovation: U.S. Army Adaptation in War and Peace
(/isis/citation/CBB001212768/)
Article
Brown, Gates M.;
(December 2019)
Technology’s Unrealistic Promise: The US Army in the 1950s and Technological Determinism
(/isis/citation/CBB875270366/)
Article
Ruth, Richard A.;
(October 2017)
The Secret of Seeing Charlie in the Dark: The Starlight Scope, Techno-anxiety, and the Spectral Mediation of the Enemy in the Vietnam War
(/isis/citation/CBB031001010/)
Article
Falcone, Santa;
Bjornstad, David J.;
(2005)
Leveraging Defense Research: Societal Impact of the Transfer of Polycrystalline Diamond Drill Bit Research
(/isis/citation/CBB211986739/)
Article
Turpening, Roger;
(2005)
Notes from the Field: Defense research and drilling technology
(/isis/citation/CBB023637837/)
Article
Grosvenor, E.S.;
(Winter 2020)
Sara Blakely, Shapewear
(/isis/citation/CBB501803393/)
Article
Quinn, Jim;
(Winter 2020)
Mary Phelps Jacob, the Brassiere
(/isis/citation/CBB350407627/)
Book
Jennifer Le Zotte;
(2017)
From Goodwill to Grunge: A History of Secondhand Styles and Alternative Economies
(/isis/citation/CBB025327893/)
Book
Brian McAllister Linn;
(2016)
Elvis’s Army: Cold War GIs and the Atomic Battlefield
(/isis/citation/CBB955668338/)
Article
Linguerri, Sandra;
(2016)
Sulle ali del vento: il Regio Servizio Aerologico Italiano dai primordi alla Grande Guerra
(/isis/citation/CBB403284187/)
Book
Ai Hisano;
(2019)
Visualizing Taste: How business changed the look of what you eat
(/isis/citation/CBB048688000/)
Be the first to comment!