Arming the Eagle: A History of United States Weapons Acquisition Since 1775

by Wilbur D. Jones Jr.

In a series of probing essays covering various periods in America’s military history, this official history tells the story of how United States weapons were developed and produced, what notable managers and organizations were involved, and which weapons from those periods had a significant impact on America’s wars.

531 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 1999

Reviews

[Ari · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a serious disappointment. Despite being nearly 500 pages long, I learned very little from it. I gather acquisition has gone on for a long time and has often gone badly, despite being important. I don't have a better understanding of why it's hard or what works well and what works badly. I did gather it's always been badly politicized but that's about it.

The editing is also very slapdash; often paragraphs will be doubled, captions will be wrong, tables will have inconsistent units and notation, etc. I had expected better from a government historical publication.