George F. Hofmann

This study of institutional warfare and clashing doctrines in the U.S. Army (vis-a-vis the role of the cavalry as an arm of battle) is very useful, if only for assessing who was actually doing the heavy lifting of creating a working mechanized force and those who were the obstructions. For one, George S. Patton is more impressive as a politician then as an innovator.

However, while I shouldn't criticize a book for what it is not, Hofmann's examination of the obstructionism of the Army branch chiefs suggests a certain gap in the literature. At the very least Hofmann gives a partial corporate portrait of a group of men who were just not coping well with machine-age modernity and mass society, and one comes away wanting to know more. My thought is that an examination of the U.S. Army through the perspective of the branch chiefs, somewhat in the style of Peter Karsten's "The Naval Aristocracy" would provide useful answers to where some of the intellectual dullness displayed came from.… (mehr)