Planning Armageddon [electronic resource] : British economic warfare and the First World War / Nicholas A. Lambert.
2012
HC260.D4 L36 2012eb
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Title
Planning Armageddon [electronic resource] : British economic warfare and the First World War / Nicholas A. Lambert.
Author
Lambert, Nicholas A., 1967-
ISBN
9780674063068 electronic book
9780674061491
9780674061491
Imprint
Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2012.
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (viii, 651 p.) : map.
Call Number
HC260.D4 L36 2012eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
940.3/1
Summary
Before the First World War, the British Admiralty conceived a plan to win rapid victory in the event of war with Germany-economic warfare on an unprecedented scale.This secret strategy called for the state to exploit Britain's effective monopolies in banking, communications, and shipping-the essential infrastructure underpinning global trade-to create a controlled implosion of the world economic system. In this revisionist account, Nicholas Lambert shows in lively detail how naval planners persuaded the British political leadership that systematic disruption of the global economy could bring about German military paralysis. After the outbreak of hostilities, the government shied away from full implementation upon realizing the extent of likely collateral damage-political, social, economic, and diplomatic-to both Britain and neutral countries. Woodrow Wilson in particular bristled at British restrictions on trade. A new, less disruptive approach to economic coercion was hastily improvised. The result was the blockade, ostensibly intended to starve Germany. It proved largely ineffective because of the massive political influence of economic interests on national ambitions and the continued interdependencies of all countries upon the smooth functioning of the global trading system.Lambert's interpretation entirely overturns the conventional understanding of British strategy in the early part of the First World War and underscores the importance in any analysis of strategic policy of understanding Clausewitz's political conditions of war.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Description based on print version record.
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Planning Armageddon.
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Table of Contents
The emergence of economic warfare
The envisioning of economic warfare
The exposition of economic warfare
The endorsement of economic warfare
"Incidentally, Armageddon begins"
The problem with Americans
Admiralty infighting
Vigorous indecision
A management problem
The summer of discontent
The end of the beginning.
The envisioning of economic warfare
The exposition of economic warfare
The endorsement of economic warfare
"Incidentally, Armageddon begins"
The problem with Americans
Admiralty infighting
Vigorous indecision
A management problem
The summer of discontent
The end of the beginning.