Strategic Determinism in Technology Selection
The Electric Battleship and U.S. Naval-Industrial Relations
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10820663 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William M Mcbride (0000-0002-9204-6131, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1992 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 248 |
| Publication date | 1992-04-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Technology and Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0040-165X • E-ISSN: 1097-3729 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3105858 |
| OpenAlex | W2328041636 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
In May 1904, Admiral Jackie Fisher, the driving force behind the creation of the British dreadnought battleship, declared that ship design must be dictated by strategy.' Fisher's pronouncement appears axiomatic, but warship design was (and remains) compromise resulting from internal service disputes over the correct strategic doctrine, the level of autonomy engineering specialists were allowed with regard to military decisions, and the influence of political-industrial alliances. In striving for naval renaissance in the 1870s, American naval officers rejected their tradition of commerce raiding and blockade warfare for an ambitious global strategy-a strategy that required modern steel navy that comprised a few vessels that we will not be afraid or ashamed to show to foreign powers.' A favorite justification for this global strategy was the need to protect American commercial expansion around the Pacific rim.3 But operations in the vast Pacific mandated territorial acquisitions for coaling stations or compromises in warship design.4 The ill-fated USS Maine, commissioned in 1895 as DR. McBRIDE is an assistant professor of history at James Madison University. He earned his Ph.D. in the history of science and technology from Johns Hopkins University and is former Olin Fellow in military history and strategic studies at Yale University
Aeronautics · Determinism · Economics · Epistemology · Management · Operations research · Political science · Selection (genetic algorithm · Social science · Sociology · Technological determinism · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Engineering · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.12 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2001 - 2014 (14) |
| Highly cited | No |