A History Of Militarism Civilian And Military - Revised Edition

New York: The Free Press, 1967. First Paperback Edition . Trade Paperback. Very Good. 5 1/4" x 8. Gaydos, Tim - Cover. Published in 1937 by Norton, by Meridian Books in 1959. This revised edition was published in 1967 by Free Press, a division of the Macmillan Company. Owner's name stamped on first title page. No other marks or stamps. Covers have some minor edge wear and small corner crease on front. The author distinguishes between the military way (techniques directly concerned with winning wars) and militarism (the fancy uniforms, useless ceremonies, class distinctions, and weird officer codes that have permeated some armies.) Vagts demonstrates that militarism has been the product of an aristocratic caste, unemployable and frequently uneducated, which has somehow managed to persuade certain nations, like Prussia and Japan, that a group of noble goldbricks were honorable, wise, heroic men, entitled to be in charge of everything. Vagts first published this book in 1937; he has revised it to take account of the Second World War, which seems to have borne out his thesis that democratic, unmilitaristic societies are better at waging war than autocratic, militaristic ones. An army so built that it serves military men, not war, is militaristic; so is everything in an army which is not preparation for fighting, but merely exists for diversion or to satisfy peacetime whims like the long-anachronistic cavalry. This was well expressed by the Russian grand duke who admitted that he hated war because it spoils the armies.