The Business of War
New York, N.Y. John Lane Company, 1918. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. Hardcover. Format is approximately 5 inches by 7.5 inches. 319, [1] pages. Cover has some wear and soiling. Includes Foreword, and chapters on War and Business; Army Demand and Supply; Feeding the Fighting Millions; From Ship to Trench; The Miracle of Transport; The Motor Under Fire; The Salvage of Battle; The Army Food Drive; The Wares of War, A Visit to Sir Douglas Haig; England's War Efficiency Engineer; and Northcliffe--Insurgent. Includes 16 black and white illustrations. Britain's way has been the scientific way. She has made the business of war a prelude to an orderly, efficient, and constructive peace. The War has become an immense training school for The War After the War. Isaac Frederick Marcosson (September 13, 1876 - March 14, 1961) was an American editor. In 1903, he became associate editor of The World's Work, and in 1907, he became a member of and financial editor of The Saturday Evening Post. From 1910 to 1913, he was editor of Munsey's Magazine. From the Foreword: War has become a business. It is the world's supreme task at this moment. "Business as usual" has gone into the scrap heap along with many other illusions that clogged effort and begot a costly optimism in the early days of the conflict. The one definite work of civilization is to win the war. The path to victory is through organization. No military establishment presents such a picture of close-knit endeavour as the British Army. The immortal First Seven Divisions who dashed to the relief of Belgium and laid the first Anglo-Saxon sacrifice on the Altar of Freedom were the nucleus of the mighty host on which the sun never sets to-day. In less than three years Britain has created an institution out of cheerful service that has blocked the German machine that was forty years in brutal building. It is the precedent for our own gallant legions now in the making. No phase of the British Army is more complete in its system than Supply and Transport. By the natural circumstance which always subordinates the prosaic to the spectacular it is the least-known. Its heroes are unsung: its deeds are not often rewarded. Yet the Army Service Corps is the uncomplaining beast of burden that carries on its back the wherewithal to live and fight. Its Victoria Cross is the consciousness of high and incessant devotion. In former experiences with the British Armies in France I have seen the Supply and Transport only as a necessary incident in the life and death struggle that raged from the Channel to the Somme. Lately however I made a special journey to study it at first hand. I have talked with its organizers and its doers: I have followed the food and equipment from the time it was contracted for until they reached the men in the firing line. In my work I have been one of the historians of so-called Big Business : in this war I have been with the five seasoned Allied Armies and also with the American Expeditionary Force in France. It is no deprecation of any of them to say that the British organization for the supply of its fighting men is in many respects the most amazing business institution that I have yet seen. At a time whe America is preparing to play her part in the supreme drama an intimate revelation of British methods — the methods, it is well to remember, upon which the whole success of our cause depends — may be helpful to soldier and civilian alike. For no man can know them without realizing the mag- nitude of the task that lies before our army abroad. Britain's way has been the scientific way. She has made the business of war the prelude to an orderly, efficient and constructive peace. The War has become an immense training school for The War After the War. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Military Ligistics, Military Supply, Military Transport, Douglas Haig, Northcliffe, Food Supply, Army Service Corps, Eric Geddes
[Book #82253]
Price: $100.00