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Article ID: CBB176871982

Neither Catapults nor Atomic Bombs: Technological Determinism and Military History from a Post-Industrial Revolution Perspective (December 2019)

Zimmerman, David K. (Author)

Vulcan
Volume: 7
Issue: 1
Pages: 45-61
Publication date: December 2019
Language: English

ISSN: 2213-459X; 2213-4603

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/22134603-00701005

Publication Date: December 2019
Edition Details: Special issue on technological determinism and war.

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Kelly Devries in “Catapults are not atomic bombs”—and in fact, of almost all of those who have joined the fray to, once and for all, kill off simplistic technological determinism—may have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. One aspect linking most of these anti-determinists is their temporal focus which is almost exclusively on pre-industrial revolutions in military technology. Furthermore, their views of the importance (or more accurately, the lack thereof) of technology in war is one that has ceased to apply to the world since the mid-nineteenth century. Technological determinism is not a disease of bad historical writing, but something that must be carefully applied in studying the technological systems of armed forces, regardless of time periods or geographic locations. We need to apply a definition of determinacy related to the systems theory that French writer Jacques Ellul proposed in The Technological Society. Here examples of military systems since the Industrial Revolution are covered and then this systems approach is applied to the pre-modern period. The approach moves us away from the radical assumptions of earlier determinists to show that technology is determinant, but only one of the many determinant factors that influence battles, campaigns, and wars. The study of military technology is central to any study of war, and we must not be afraid to move beyond a merely descriptive approach that appears to be promoted by the anti-determinists.

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Includes Series Articles

Article DeVries, Kelly R. (December 2019) Catapults Still Aren’t Atomic Bombs: Effectiveness and Determinism in Premodern Military Technology. Vulcan (pp. 34-44). unapi

Included in

Article Goodman, Seymour E. (December 2019) Deploying Technological Innovation in “Real Time”: Union and Confederate Ironclads. Vulcan (pp. 81-110). unapi

Article Brown, Gates M. (December 2019) Technology’s Unrealistic Promise: The US Army in the 1950s and Technological Determinism. Vulcan (pp. 62-80). unapi

Article Roland, Alex (December 2019) Is Military Technology Deterministic?. Vulcan (pp. 19-33). unapi

Article Walton, Steven A. (December 2019) Technological Determinism(s) and the Study of War. Vulcan (pp. 4-18). unapi

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