AIR WAR By W. 0. D. Pierce
Under this rather misleading title— less than one-third of the whole is concerned with the military aspects of aviation—this book (Watts, 2s. 6d.) presents what really amounts to a general survey of the evolution of flying and airpower from the first dreams in the legends of Daedalus and Ikarus down to the most recent developments and problems. Ott the technical side it presents a clear and interesting picture of the fundamental problems and of the reasons for such developments as that from the biplane to the monoplane in post-War years, thus forming a useful supplement to studies of a more military character, but its claim to deal specially with the social aspects of air warfare remains a puzzle and a disappointment to the reader. At the last the nigger in the woodpile emerges in the conclusion that a true morale can become possible only in a State which has repudiated profit making as its internal policy and, economic imperi- alism as its foreign policy, as it has been the case in the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics.
Previous page
