Acquisitions

Gerald Dickens. Bombing and Strategy: The Fallacy of Total War. London: Sampson Low, Marston, n.d. [1946?]. That's Admiral Sir Gerald Dickens KCVO CB CMG to you and me, the grandson of Charles Dickens no less. An example of airpower scepticism. I had hoped that it was the 1941 edition, but the 'n.d.' turns out to mean c. 1946. But then I get to see what he makes of the atomic bomb, so that's not so bad.

Michael S. Neiberg. Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I. Cambridge and London: Belknap Press, 2011. Cuts a wide swathe through Europe in 1914 in constructing the argument that contrary to widespread belief, the coming of war was a huge surprise to contemporaries. I waver on this myself; the First World War seems like the most overdetermined war in history, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest it was unexpected. I guess it can be both.

Keith Kyle. Suez: Britain's End of Empire in the Middle East. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2011 [1993]. Suez was not the first time Britain 'intervened' in the Middle East, nor the last; but it was arguably the most disastrously misconceived intervention. A classic (and weighty) account.

Chaz Bowyer. RAF Operations 1918-1938. London: William Kimber, 1988. There were more than you might think -- enough to fill a 300-page book, anyway -- mostly in the Middle East and on the North-West Front. Very well-illustrated (if you like aeroplanes, that is).

Richard Knott. Flying Boats of the Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Ships of the Sky. London: Robert Hale, 2011. The title suggests a somewhat nostalgic view, but then again the Short Empire is a guilty pleasure of mine.

Mark Clodfelter. Beneficial Bombing: The Progressive Foundations of American Air Power, 1917-1945. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2010. The American bomber dream: a more humane kind of warfare through precision bombing. Looks like a worthy update to Michael Sherry's The Rise of American Air Power.

Randall T. Wakelam. The Science of Bombing: Operational Research in RAF Bomber Command. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press, 2009. Eager to read this one. It's chock-full of informationy goodness, such as an appendix illustrating Bomber Command's different bombing techniques, from Shaker 1 through Wanganui 2.

John S. Partington. Building Cosmopolis: The Political Thought of H. G. Wells. Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate, 2003. A very highly regarded book on Wells' ideas about a world state and how to get one, a subject which I have dipped into insofar as it involves airpower (which is frequently).

Philip Anthony Towle. Pilots and Rebels: The Use of Aircraft in Unconventional Warfare 1918-1988. London: Brassey's, 1989. From air control to counterinsurgency. A bit RAF-centric until after 1945.

Jan Rüger. The Great Naval Game: Britain and Germany in the Age of Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. A book I cited in my thesis. I don't see why the library should have all the fun.

Charles Sowerwine. France Since 1870: Culture, Society and the Making of the Republic. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Second Edition. French history is one of my weak points. If I'd taken one of Chips' classes -- he retired from my former department a few years ago -- I might not have needed to buy his book. But I probably would have anyway!

As I said... I went back for more Shute!

Neville Shute. No Highway. London: Vintage Books, 2009 [1948]. Not about the Comet and its metal-fatigue induced accidents, because it was written before the prototype even flew.

Neville Shute. Pastoral. London: Vintage Books, 2009 [1944]. A Bomber Command romance.

I went on a mini-spending spree this week -- mini because Vintage have recently cut their prices in Australia and are cheap as chips.

Graham Greene. Brighton Rock. London: Vintage Books, 2004 [1938]. 'Now a major motion picture'.

Aldous Huxley. Ape and Essence. London: Vintage Books, 2005 [1949]. I couldn't resist this after reading the blurb, which begins: 'In February 2108, the New Zealand Rediscovery Expedition reaches California.' Huxley's atomic war novel.

Nevil Shute. Slide Rule: The Autobiography of an Engineer. London: Vintage Books, 2009 [1954]. Shute's account of his early career as an aeronautical engineer, when he worked on the R100 and co-founded Airspeed. Vintage have reissued most, if not all, of Shute's back catalogue and I will no doubt be buying more of them!

Rex Warner. The Aerodrome: A Love Story. London: Vintage Books, 2007 [1941]. A book I've been wanting to read since before starting my PhD. Fascism and aviation in Deep England.