The Airpower Fallacy

 Gladwell, Malcom.  The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the 

          Second World War.  New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2021.  ISBN: 978-0-316-29661-8

After the Great War (also known as World War I), air enthusiasts around the world worked on how to make air power more relevant on the battlefield.  They dreamed that fleets of bombers could stream over static battle lines to strike targets in the rear, like cavalry of  old had done; furthermore, they believed this could be a war winning strategy.   They just needed the right machines, the right ordnance, and the right men to make their dream a reality.  In The Bomber Mafia, Malcom Gladwell indulges his interest in the bombers of World War II to lay out some of the stories of the people involved in this utopian ideal.

In the opening of the book, Malcom Gladwell cheerfully admits that The Bomber Mafia began as a series of podcasts that were retrofitted into print.  This origin explains the layout of the book.  Gladwell opens the book with a change in command for the Twenty-First Bomber Command at Tinian Atoll from General Haywood Hansell to General Curtis LeMay.  Gladwell then discusses the Dutch genius named Carl Norden with his "analog computer" bombsight that could accurately drop a bomb on the target.  Gladwell then transitions to the dream of the Army Air Corp as a separate service that could win a war all by itself.  This dream took shape at Maxwell Field in Montgomery (AL), the home of the Air Corp Tactical School.  The stratigic plan was to take out the resources and infrastructure (bridges, railroads, mines, factories, and ports) of a country so that the enemy could no longer wage war.   The creation of a bomber fleet made up of B-17 Fortresses and later B-29 Superfortresses for the Army Air Corp was the result. After the US entered World War II, the Army Air Corp based bombers in England to carry out their plan to bomb Germany into submission.  That did not happen as planned since the Norden bombsight could not deliver on its promise due to mechanical issues and pilot training problems.  Then there was the bombing war in the Pacific.  After bases were established on the Marianas Islands, the B-29s were in range of the Japanese homeland.  But weather, unknown obstacles (such as the heretofore undiscovered jet stream), and inaccurate attacks led to a change in tactics, from precision bombing to simply burning everything down.  The plan changed from precision bombing to just burn everything down. The change in command from General Hansell to General LeMay marked this change in attitudes and tactics.  General LeMay authorized the use of napalm and then the atomic bomb.

In The Bomber Mafia, Malcom Gladwell has provided a very readable, broad-strokes introduction to the utopian ideal of air power.  His notes provide sources to document his statements.  However, for a more detailed look at the utility of bombing in World War II, the reader might want to explore The Bombers and the Bombed by Richard Overy (https://readinwv.blogspot.com/2015/08/ww-ii-bombing-reassessed-again.html) or other books on this topic. 

An Epic Trip into the Past and Back to the Present

 Wood, Michael.  The Story of China: The Epic History of a World Power from the Middle Kingdom

            to Mao and the China Dream.  New York: St. Martin's Press, 2020.  ISBN: 978-1-4711-7601-2

China - a powerhouse now and in the past.  But how did it get to where it is today?  Who started this juggernaut rolling, who grew it to this size, and at what cost?  Join Michael Wood as he takes the reader on a epic exploration into The Story of China. 

Michael Wood opens The Story of China with the December 1899 winter solstice ceremony when the Emperor performed a ritual dating back to the Bronze Age at the Temple of Heaven for the last time.  Then, in nineteen chapters, Wood takes the reader back to the beginning of civilization in what became China and works his way forward to the present time.  Along the way the reader visits the major events that shaped China including stops at the Shang, the First Emperor, the Han, the Tang, the time of the Five Kingdoms, The Song (North and South), the Yuan/Mongols, the Ming, and returning to the time of the Qing, then into the age of the Republic, the time of Mao, and the current regime.  Along that journey are many side trips to understand the Mandate of Heaven, and discover what ordinary folks were doing, writing, and enjoying, and why societies fall apart and reform.

While the reader could rush through this title, The Story of China rewards the careful reader who takes the time read and ponder what he/she has read.  The story of China is cyclical - a kingdom/empire is founded, grows and then falls, only for a new kingdom/empire to rise from the ashes and build upon the earlier foundation.  The culture of China was formed early and is a thread that Michael Wood weaves through the whole book.  The thoughtful reader will see that certain attitudes regarding the role of the state and the importance of cultural stability underlies most of the empires despite what reformers tried to change.  Micheal Wood has written a very insightful history that so easily could have been a hagiography for the present oppressive regime. 

Thanks, St. Martin's Press, for inviting me to review this title.