The Other Face of Battle
America's Forgotten Wars and the Experience of Combat
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP USA
- Date of Publication 29 July 2021
- ISBN 9780190920647
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages272 pages
- Size 236x162x27 mm
- Weight 522 g
- Language English 182
Categories
Short description:
Focusing on three battles, each reflective of asymmetrical, intercultural, and irregular warfare, this provocative, harrowing, and illuminating book shows how American soldiers have experienced combat in which the ?standard? rules of engagement did not apply.
MoreLong description:
Taking its title from The Face of Battle, John Keegan's canonical book on the nature of warfare, The Other Face of Battle illuminates the American experience of fighting in ?irregular? and ?intercultural? wars over the centuries. Sometimes known as ?forgotten? wars, in part because they lacked triumphant clarity, they are the focus of the book. David Preston, David Silbey, and Anthony Carlson focus on, respectively, the Battle of Monongahela (1755), the Battle of Manila (1898), and the Battle of Makuan, Afghanistan (2020)--conflicts in which American soldiers were forced to engage in ?irregular? warfare, confronting an enemy entirely alien to them. This enemy rejected the Western conventions of warfare and defined success and failure-victory and defeat-in entirely different ways. Symmetry of any kind is lost. Here was not ennobling engagement but atrocity, unanticipated insurgencies, and strategic stalemate.
War is always hell. These wars, however, profoundly undermined any sense of purpose or proportion. Nightmarish and existentially bewildering, they nonetheless characterize how Americans have experienced combat and what its effects have been. They are therefore worth comparing for what they hold in common as well as what they reveal about our attitude toward war itself. The Other Face of Battle reminds us that ?irregular? or ?asymmetrical? warfare is now not the exception but the rule. Understanding its roots seems more crucial than ever.
This is an important book at the right time, reminding us that we cannot define war as we might like it to be. Enemies, too, have agency and authorship. And they are unlikely to conform to the other side's preferences. There are indeed two ways to fight, asymmetrically and stupidly. You hope that your adversaries pick the latter. But if they do not, you will wish that you had read this book.
Table of Contents:
Maps and Figures
Preface
1. Introduction: Enemies of Another Sort
2. The Battle of the Monongahela: Braddock's Defeat, July 9th, 1755
3. Interlude I: Building and Equipping an American Army of Expansion
4. The Battle of Manila, February 4-5, 1899
5. Interlude II: Becoming a Superpower and Fighting "Small" Wars
6. Makuan/Operation DRAGON STRIKE, September 15-17, 2010
7. Conclusion: The Other Face of Battle and Preparing for the Wrong War
Notes
Index
