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A Scientific Way of War

Antebellum Military Science, West Point, and the Origins of American Military Thought - Studies in War, Society, and the Military

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A Scientific Way of War

By: Ian Clarence Hope
Narrated by: Kevin F Spalding
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A Scientific Way of War analyzes how the doctrine of military science evolved from teaching specific Napoleonic applications to embracing subjects that were useful for war in North America. Drawing from a wide array of materials, Ian C. Hope refutes earlier charges of a lack of professionalization in the antebellum American army and an overreliance on the teachings of Swiss military theorist Antoine de Jomini. Instead, Hope shows that inculcation in West Point's American military curriculum eventually came to provide the army with an officer corps that shared a common doctrine and common skill in military problem solving. The proliferation of military science ensured that on the eve of the Civil War there existed a distinctly American, and scientific, way of war.

©2015 Ian C. Hope (P)2015 Redwood Audiobooks Education Military Military Science War Civil War Mathematics
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Critic reviews

"This book is required reading for anyone who would understand generalship and high command in the American Civil War." (Richard J. Sommers, senior historian emeritus, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, U.S. Army War College)
"Truly original.... No other scholar has so successfully explained what Americans understood by the phrase 'military science' as taught-and modified over time-at West Point." (Peter Maslowski, author of Looking for a Hero: Joe Ronnie Hooper and the Vietnam War)
"A detailed, thoughtful, and provocative explanation of the evolution of the U.S. Army's understanding of military science and why this scientific view of war was so important in the nation's military history and to the conduct of the Civil War." (Brian McAllister Linn, author of The Echo of Battle: The Army's Way of War)
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