Social History Of The Machine Gun - John A. Ellis

Ellis uses the machine-gun as an entryway for a fascinating look at the persistence of customs, practices, traditions, and above all a way of thinking in the face of a drastically changed practical reality. The 19th Century's officers and commanders were accustomed to thinking in terms of human intrepidity and courage as the most important attributes of military success, and these men would carry their outmoded notions into a new kind of battle -- especially the higher-ranking, older officers who had cut their military teeth in an earlier age characterized by the huge but essentially still Napoleonic battles of the Franco-Prussian War or in small-scale colonial ...  Read the complete review