Mobilizing for Modern War

The Political Economy of American Warfare, 1865-1919

by Paul A. C. Koistinen

Series: Modern War Studies

Sales Date: November 26, 1997

408 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in

Hardcover
9780700608607
Published: November 1997

$70.00

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Although the military-industrial complex became familiar to most Americans during the Cold War, Paul Koistinen shows that its origins actually go back to the dawn of this century. Mobilizing for Modern War, the second of an extraordinary five-volume study on the political economy of American warfare, highlights the emergence of this pivotal relationship. In this volume, Koistinen examines war planning and mobilizing in an era of rapid industrialization and reveals how economic mobilization for defense and war is shaped at the national level by the interaction of political, economic, and military institutions and by increasingly powerful and expensive weaponry.

Covering the Gilded Age and Progressive Era through the Spanish-American War and World War I, Mobilizing for Modern War shows how a partnership evolved between government and business to prepare for and conduct modern warfare. This partnership was an extension of Progressive regulatory reforms, but it had to include a professionalized army and navy in order to handle the new technology of war. Koistinen traces the origins of the military-industrial complex to the emergence of a modern navy at the turn of the century, when building a new fleet of steel, armor, and ordnance required a production team of political leaders, naval officers, and businessmen. A similar team was brought together again between 1915 and 1918 as the War Industries Board to mobilize the economy for World War I, and it became the model for subsequent industrial mobilization planning.

Koistinen shows how mobilizing for World War I left an indelible imprint on twentieth-century life. By accelerating the emerging Progressive political economy, it strengthened the cooperative planning ethic within business and government and introduced the concept of industrial preparedness, carried out largely under military leadership. Relating events of this period to what preceded and followed, Koistinen convincingly argues that in this century warfare has shaped the nation’s social institutions and ideology even more than reform. Mobilizing for Modern War is marked by outstanding research and cogent analysis and yields fresh insights not only about the conduct of conflict, but also about war’s effects on peacetime affairs.

"[Koistinen’s] contribution will prove invaluable to civilian as well as military professional in the classroom and the public sector."’American Historical Review
"Enhances our understanding of how warfare shaped the present-day American state."—Reviews in American History
"Succeeds in providing a solid overview of the administrative and institutional infrastructure of the United States’s capacity for industrial mobilization between 1865 and 1919."—International History Review
"The reader is rewarded time and time again with new insights."—Business History Review
"As anyone who has examined the history of mobilization during World War I knows, it was a stunningly complex business. Koistinen imposes a firm narrative control on the chaos. Nowhere else are the innumerable agencies, committees, and other organizations that deal with mobilization so clearly explained and their relationships so sharply delineated."—H-Net Reviews
"The book covers an immense canvas and combines complex detail, persuasive argument, and uncluttered narrative. It is a good read."—Journal of American History
"The book will have to be read by those seeking to understand the Gilded Age, Progressivism and the First World War; it should be read by those seeking to understand some very important foundations, political economic and ideological, for the subsequent period. This book is a good read, judicious, fair, engaging and engaged."—American Studies
"With this volume, Koistinen hits his stride in conveying his mastery of the history of the political economy of American warfare and military institutions. His work will long remain the principal authoritative study of American economic mobilization for World War I and its long-run impact and implications."—Russell F. Weigley, author of The American Way of War
"A real tour de force. Based on prodigious research, this book provides a thorough and insightful account of the material basis for the United States military in one of the most important periods in American history."—John Whiteclay Chambers II, author of To Raise an Army
"This fascinating analysis of the political economy of warfare in the United States during the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, and World War I is a major contribution to our understanding of the forces that have shaped American society. It is part of a monumental study of the origins and development of the military-industrial complex. For military historians, economic historians, and scholars of United States history, the notes alone are worth the price of the book."—Ronald Schaffer, author of America in the Great War
"A most impressive book. I am awed by Koistinen’s grand design and outstanding research. When completed, this series will be one of the most distinguished feats of scholarship of our time."—Edward M. Coffman, author of The War to End All Wars