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Logistics: The Key to Victory
All commanders know that an army (or navy) cannot operate without supplies, yet most aspects of war studies emphasize strategy, tactics, weaponry, and command. Jeremy Black fills a gap in war studies with logistics as a huge subject at the center of all conflict, globally and historically.
The focus is on key conflicts, developments, and concepts--illustrating the vital role of logistics with technologies changing but underlying issues remaining constant. Here is a world history of logistics--a veritable compendium--but within a detailed and comprehensive but concise text. Factors affecting logistics include, for example, climate, geography, food supplies, welfare of troops, payment, transport, communications, terrain and distance, but also government policy, stability, and financial conditions. All are considered, including theoretical and practical factors of supply, from classical, ancient, early and medieval times, to modern eras of industrial warfare, especially with oil and steam, and scientific and technical advances-- even cyber warfare and smart weapons.
The focus is on key conflicts, developments, and concepts--illustrating the vital role of logistics with technologies changing but underlying issues remaining constant. Here is a world history of logistics--a veritable compendium--but within a detailed and comprehensive but concise text. Factors affecting logistics include, for example, climate, geography, food supplies, welfare of troops, payment, transport, communications, terrain and distance, but also government policy, stability, and financial conditions. All are considered, including theoretical and practical factors of supply, from classical, ancient, early and medieval times, to modern eras of industrial warfare, especially with oil and steam, and scientific and technical advances-- even cyber warfare and smart weapons.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published October 15, 2021
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About the author
Jeremy Black
433 books198 followersJeremy Black is an English historian, who was formerly a professor of history at the University of Exeter. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.
Black is the author of over 180 books, principally but not exclusively on 18th-century British politics and international relations, and has been described by one commentator as "the most prolific historical scholar of our age". He has published on military and political history, including Warfare in the Western World, 1882–1975 (2001) and The World in the Twentieth Century (2002).
Black is the author of over 180 books, principally but not exclusively on 18th-century British politics and international relations, and has been described by one commentator as "the most prolific historical scholar of our age". He has published on military and political history, including Warfare in the Western World, 1882–1975 (2001) and The World in the Twentieth Century (2002).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 30, 2022
Logistics: They Key to Victory is a difficult book to review. It’s (as best I can tell) exceptionally researched, and valuably provides a broad overview of logistical developments (including those outside “The West” and European/American colonial ventures*) from the time of the Roman and Chinese empires through to the present (with thoughts on future developments), and uses this to make a valuable argument about thinking about logistics. The understanding of logistics is nuanced and avoids falling into the trap of assuming a continual forward march of progress, or that less technological methods were necessarily less effective. So there’s a lot of good here, and while I don’t read a lot on logistics, I expect it’s an important contribution to the field.
The writing, however, is very academic in nature, with lots of long sentences and the use of terms that are not always adequately described, as well as the use of obscure, long words, when shorter, clearer ones would do a better job. The arguments, too, sometimes feel like they’re danced around as much as focussed on, making it less clear than it could be what the author is driving at – which, when combined with long, complex sentences did not make for an easy reading experience. And while some topics are inherently difficult, the nature of the writing seemed to make this book harder to read than it needed to be.
The standard of editing was generally sound, with only a handful of grammatical errors or typos – but while these weren’t a big issue, due to the longer sentences it was far harder to discern what had been intended (whereas in writing with shorter, more focussed sentences, grammatical errors are easy to “think around”). The book is well-sourced, and as well as the numerous sources referenced in the notes for each chapter, there are suggestions for further reading, and an index. There were no illustrations, maps or diagrams, but that was appropriate for the nature of the book and it didn’t feel like they were missing.
More broadly, while I thought most of the arguments made were robust, there were a couple of times when there was an emphasis on American “can-do” attitude (particularly in the 20th century), without in my view enough of an (or, indeed, any) explanation of how this differed from the capacity of other nations to improvise and adapt (indeed, one example highlighted the US emphasis on at-sea supply as an example of this, overlooking German developments in this field that were arguably at least as innovative).
I’m not, however, unhappy that I’ve read it. The broad sweep of the historical pattern of logistics, and the way the author frames it as focussing on context, capacity and goals, is valuable. All up, then, the quality of the research and generally the strength of the analysis would put it right at the top, but the convoluted sentence structures and difficulty getting at the underlying argument bring it down some. It’s worth reading for people interested the historical development of logistics, but don’t expect an easy read.
* While not described as such (particularly by Americans), the American occupation of the North American continent after becoming independent was just as much a colonial undertaking as any other European empire.
The writing, however, is very academic in nature, with lots of long sentences and the use of terms that are not always adequately described, as well as the use of obscure, long words, when shorter, clearer ones would do a better job. The arguments, too, sometimes feel like they’re danced around as much as focussed on, making it less clear than it could be what the author is driving at – which, when combined with long, complex sentences did not make for an easy reading experience. And while some topics are inherently difficult, the nature of the writing seemed to make this book harder to read than it needed to be.
The standard of editing was generally sound, with only a handful of grammatical errors or typos – but while these weren’t a big issue, due to the longer sentences it was far harder to discern what had been intended (whereas in writing with shorter, more focussed sentences, grammatical errors are easy to “think around”). The book is well-sourced, and as well as the numerous sources referenced in the notes for each chapter, there are suggestions for further reading, and an index. There were no illustrations, maps or diagrams, but that was appropriate for the nature of the book and it didn’t feel like they were missing.
More broadly, while I thought most of the arguments made were robust, there were a couple of times when there was an emphasis on American “can-do” attitude (particularly in the 20th century), without in my view enough of an (or, indeed, any) explanation of how this differed from the capacity of other nations to improvise and adapt (indeed, one example highlighted the US emphasis on at-sea supply as an example of this, overlooking German developments in this field that were arguably at least as innovative).
I’m not, however, unhappy that I’ve read it. The broad sweep of the historical pattern of logistics, and the way the author frames it as focussing on context, capacity and goals, is valuable. All up, then, the quality of the research and generally the strength of the analysis would put it right at the top, but the convoluted sentence structures and difficulty getting at the underlying argument bring it down some. It’s worth reading for people interested the historical development of logistics, but don’t expect an easy read.
* While not described as such (particularly by Americans), the American occupation of the North American continent after becoming independent was just as much a colonial undertaking as any other European empire.
May 12, 2022
The aren't a lot of books on military logistics, and the closest there is to a classic on the subject is Martin van Creveld's Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton. That book, which is still in print, has clear limitations of scope: it only covers wars in Europe, North America and the Middle East, and only (as the title suggests) from the seventeenth through to the mid-twentieth centuries.
In this book the prolific British historian Jeremy Black sets out to redress this, writing a more comprehensive work that covers logistics from antiquity to the twenty-first century, with a wider geographic scope that includes Latin America, Africa and Asia. To do so in one slim volume is quite a challenge. How well does Black meet this challenge?
Not too well.
There never seems to be enough detail as to how things were managed, and details are critical to understanding logistics. Yet at the same time there is a blizzard of references to various wars, most of which the reader is guaranteed to never have heard of, especially when we get to the eighteenth century, which is Black's field of special expertise. There are a lot of good points made, but there is little effort to pull them together, so they often get lost in the snow. The conclusions chapter in particular falls flat.
However there are certain themes that run through the book, with lots and lots of examples:
Strategy depends on logistics There is no shortage of examples of armies halted or defeated by logistical failure. Or campaign plans that were shaped by logistic constraints such as access to rivers. Or campaigns that were dependent on capturing the supplies needed to conduct it (never a good idea). But armies have also discovered that devastating the landscape to secure or deny supplies may not be the best strategy to win over the support of the local population.
Tactics depends on logistics Constraints on tactics are not so obvious but the employment of weapons like firearms or motor vehicles necessitates certain logistical support in the form of gunpowder, fuel and maintenance. But counter-logistics such as demolitions have also been effective tactics since ancient times.
Logistics is not sufficient to guarantee victory The US Army did not fail in Vietnam due to logistical difficulties.
Good enough logistics is good enough You do not need the best state-of-the-art logistics, just ones that are good enough for the purpose at hand. This is a running theme throughout the book. There is a tendency to study the best, but that may not be what is required.
Geography is the key dominating factor in logistics The means of transport, the availability of food and supplies, the weather, climate and endemic diseases are critical factors in logistical planning.
The book's strength is in its references. Black provides lots of references to recent material, and there are a lot of great books and journal articles cited. The reader interested in the subject would be well advised to pore over these.
In this book the prolific British historian Jeremy Black sets out to redress this, writing a more comprehensive work that covers logistics from antiquity to the twenty-first century, with a wider geographic scope that includes Latin America, Africa and Asia. To do so in one slim volume is quite a challenge. How well does Black meet this challenge?
Not too well.
There never seems to be enough detail as to how things were managed, and details are critical to understanding logistics. Yet at the same time there is a blizzard of references to various wars, most of which the reader is guaranteed to never have heard of, especially when we get to the eighteenth century, which is Black's field of special expertise. There are a lot of good points made, but there is little effort to pull them together, so they often get lost in the snow. The conclusions chapter in particular falls flat.
However there are certain themes that run through the book, with lots and lots of examples:
Strategy depends on logistics There is no shortage of examples of armies halted or defeated by logistical failure. Or campaign plans that were shaped by logistic constraints such as access to rivers. Or campaigns that were dependent on capturing the supplies needed to conduct it (never a good idea). But armies have also discovered that devastating the landscape to secure or deny supplies may not be the best strategy to win over the support of the local population.
Tactics depends on logistics Constraints on tactics are not so obvious but the employment of weapons like firearms or motor vehicles necessitates certain logistical support in the form of gunpowder, fuel and maintenance. But counter-logistics such as demolitions have also been effective tactics since ancient times.
Logistics is not sufficient to guarantee victory The US Army did not fail in Vietnam due to logistical difficulties.
Good enough logistics is good enough You do not need the best state-of-the-art logistics, just ones that are good enough for the purpose at hand. This is a running theme throughout the book. There is a tendency to study the best, but that may not be what is required.
Geography is the key dominating factor in logistics The means of transport, the availability of food and supplies, the weather, climate and endemic diseases are critical factors in logistical planning.
The book's strength is in its references. Black provides lots of references to recent material, and there are a lot of great books and journal articles cited. The reader interested in the subject would be well advised to pore over these.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews