The Pursuit of Power

基本信息

Format:Paperback / softback 416 pages, Ill.

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Imprint:University of Chicago Press

Edition:2nd ed.

ISBN:9780226561585

Published: 1 Sep 1984

Classifications:General & world history, War & defence operations

Readership:Professional & Vocational Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Undergraduate

Weight:552g

Dimensions:212 x 139 x 27 (mm)

Pub. Country:United States

頁面參數僅供參考，具體以實物為準

書籍簡介

在這部集軍事、技術和社會歷史於一體的宏偉作品中，威廉·h·麥克尼爾探索了整整一千年的人類鉅變，並追溯了我們現在所面臨的可怕困境的道路。從1139年被教會禁止使用的十字弓到核導彈，從17世紀軍事演習的社會後果到20世紀軍事-工業複合體的出現，麥克尼爾的手法同樣精湛。他的中心論點是，11世紀世界社會的商業變革使得軍事活動越來越多地對市場力量和統治者的命令作出反應。麥克尼爾認為，只有在我們這個時代，指令性經濟才會取代對大規模人力活動的市場控制。對權力的追求並不能解決當前的問題，但它的發現、假設和淵博的知識確實為我們當前的恐懼提供了一個視角，而且正如麥克尼爾所希望的那樣，“為更明智的行動提供了基礎”。

In this magnificent synthesis of military, technological, and social history, William H. McNeill explores a whole millennium of human upheaval and traces the path by which we have arrived at the frightening dilemmas that now confront us. McNeill moves with equal mastery from the crossbow—banned by the Church in 1139 as too lethal for Christians to use against one another—to the nuclear missile, from the sociological consequences of drill in the seventeenth century to the emergence of the military-industrial complex in the twentieth. His central argument is that a commercial transformation of world society in the eleventh century caused military activity to respond increasingly to market forces as well as to the commands of rulers. Only in our own time, suggests McNeill, are command economies replacing the market control of large-scale human effort. The Pursuit of Power does not solve the problems of the present, but its discoveries, hypotheses, and sheer breadth of learning do offer a perspective on our current fears and, as McNeill hopes, "a ground for wiser action."

目錄

Preface 

1. Arms and Society in Antiquity 

2. The Era of Chinese Predominance, 1000-1500 

Market and Command in Medieval China 

Market Mobilization beyond China’s borders 

3. The Business of War in Europe, 1000-1600 

Pioneering the Business of War in Northern Italy 

The Gunpowder Revolution and the Rise of Atlantic Europe 

The Market Asserts Control 

4. Advances in Europe’s Art of War, 1600-1750 

Geographical Spread 

Improvements in the Control of Armies 

Standardization and Quasi-Stabilization of European Armed Forces 

5. Strains on Europe’s Bureaucratization of Violence, 1700-1789 

Disequilibrium Arising from Frontier Expansion 

Challenges Arising from Deliberate Reorganization 

6. The Military Impact of the French Political and the British Industrial Revolutions, 1789-1840 

The French Formula for Relieving Population Pressure 

The British Variant 

Postwar Settlement, 1815-40 

7. The Initial Industrialization of War, 1840-84 

Commercial and National Armaments Rivalries 

A New Paradigm: The Prussian Way of War 

Global Repercussions 

8. Intensified Military-Industrial Interaction, 1884-1914 

Decay of Britain’s Strategic Position 

Emergence of the Military-Industrial Complex in Great Britain 

Naval Armament and the Politicization of Economics 

The Limits of Rational Design and Management 

International Repercussions 

9. World Wars of the Twentieth Century 

Balance of Power and Demography in World Wars I and II 

Managerial Metamorphosis in World War I: First Phase, 1914-16 

Managerial Metamorphosis in World War I: Second Phase, 1916-18 

Interwar Reaction and Return to Managed Economies during World War II 

10. The Arms Race and Command Economies since 1945 

Conclusion 

Index

作者簡介

威廉·麥克尼爾（William H. McNeill）是芝加哥大學歷史系和學院的羅伯特·米利肯傑出服務教授。 他的許多著作包括《對權力的追求》，《西方的崛起》以及《神話和其他散文》，這些著作均由芝加哥大學出版社出版。

William H. McNeill is the Robert A. Millikan Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Department of History and the College at the University of Chicago. His many books include The Pursuit of Power, The Rise of the West, and Mythistory and Other Essays, all published by the University of Chicago Press.