Description
Book SynopsisIn Dying to Learn, Michael Hunzeker develops a novel theory to explain how wartime militaries learn. He focuses on the Western Front, which witnessed three great-power armies struggle to cope with deadlock throughout the First World War, as the British, French, and German armies all pursued the same solutions-assault tactics, combined arms, and elastic defense in depth. By the end of the war, only the German army managed to develop and implement a set of revolutionary offensive, defensive, and combined arms doctrines that in hindsight represented the best way to fight.
Hunzeker identifies three organizational variables that determine how fighting militaries generate new ideas, distinguish good ones from bad ones, and implement the best of them across the entire organization. These factors are: the degree to which leadership delegates authority on the battlefield; how effectively the organization retains control over soldier and officer training; and
Trade Review
From his detailed case studies, Hunzeker develops a theory of wartime learning. Hunzeker specializes in conventional deterrence, war termination, military adaptation, and simulation design.
* Michigan War Studies Review *
Dying to Learn is a valuable and impressive academic and practitioner's analysis. It is not easy reading. The author demonstrates the value of institutional, organizational, and doctrinal study, however unexciting the topics are for many.
* US Army War College Press *
Dying to Learn will be especially relevant to contemporary military service personnel thinking about their own profession as it contends with the complexity of learning in a time of great stress and strain.Hunzeker offers a model to understand wartime learning[.]
* Canadian Military History *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Wartime Learning
Assessment, Command, and Training Theory
Learning on the Western Front
The German Army on the Western Front
The British Army on the Western Front
The French Army on the Western Front
Conclusion: Alternative Explanations and Policy Implications
