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* 7. 53 ~Van Creveld, Martin. Technology and War: From 2000B. C. to the Present. London: Collier MacmillanPublishers and New York: The Free Press, 1989. LC88-16405. ISBN 0-02-933151-X.That "war is completely permeated by technologyand governed by it" is Van Creveld's basic thesis. Theauthor, whose other books on warfare are required textsin military academies throughout the world, dividesboth his book and the history of warfare into fourperiods, each characterized by the nature of thetechnology that dominated it. Thus, during the firstperiod, from 2000 B. C. to 1500 A. D. , human andanimal muscle-power constituted the chief means ofwaging war. The second period, which the author labels"the Age of Machines, " extended from the Renaissanceto about 1830. Key technological developments duringthis period were the exploitation of gunpowder and thewidespread use of firearms. Third, from 1830 to 1945,such inventions as the railway and the telegraph, andthe rise of complex bureaucratic organizations, gaverise to "the Age of Systems. " Fourth and finally, theinvention of nuclear weapons and computers createdthe present age, which Van Creveld terms "the Age"of Automation. Van Creveld concludes with a usefulbibliographic essay. Compare with 7. 94 below.* 7. 54 *Walker, Paul, and Eric Stambler. ". .. and the DirtyLittle Weapons. " Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 47,no. 4 (1991): 21-24.Media coverage of the Persian Gulf War of 1991created "the impression that the war was a bloodless,push-button battle in which only military targets weredestroyed. "(p. 21) The reality, according to the authors,was very different. In addition to providing details ofthe destructive power of some of the weapons that wereused against Iraq, they note that "of the 88, 500 tonsof bombs dropped, only 6, 520 tons — 7. 4 percent — wereprecision-guided ordnance, according to officialPentagon figures. "(p. 22)~ 7. 55 *Williams, Peter, and David Wallace. Unit 731: Japan 'sSecret Biological Warfarein World War ll. New York:The Free Press, 1989. LC 88-39072. ISBN 0-02-935301-7.At the end of the war, the United States governmentagreed not to prosecute the responsible Japaneseas war criminals in return for their cooperation inproviding American scientists with technical informa-tion that was used to develop American biologicalweaponry. The authors have based their account ofJapan's use of biological warfare on long-secretdocuments obtained through the Freedom of Informa-tion Act. For a brief account, see: John W. Powell,"A Hidden Chapter in History." Bulletin ofthe AtomicScientists 37, no. 8 (1981): 44-52.+ 7. 56 *World Military and Social Expenditures. 1974-. A. Ed. :Ruth Leger Sivard. Washington, DC: World Priorities.ISSN 0363-4795. 1991 edition has ISBN 0-918281-07-5.Sivard's annually published compendium comparesexpenditures of national governments around the worldfor war and armaments with those for the social needsof education, medical care, and housing, among others.It also provides key indicators of a nation's quality of1 ife such as the infant mortal ity rate. A consistent themeof the series has been the great disparity between theprodigious resources devoted to the military and therelatively scanty funds committed to human needs. Theannual editions are an excellent resource for studentsof collective violence, both behavioral and structural.~ 7. 57 *Wright, Gordon. "The Impact of Total War." In TheOrdeal of Total War, 1939-1945. New York: Harperand Row, 1968. LC 68-28221.In the final chapter of his important study ofWorld War II, Wright examines the political, social,and psychological impacts of the war on Westernsociety. A major conclusion is that there is a tendencyfor democratic political institutions to weaken whenthey are engaged in a war against totalitarian powers.* 7. 58 *Wright, Quincy. A Study of War. With a commentaryon war since 1941. 2d ed. Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1965. LC 65-5396.Wright coordinated this vast compendium of dataon trends in warfare throughouthistory at the Universityof Chicago. This edition, in 1, 637 pages, is a onevolume,updated abridgement of the work that wasoriginally published in two volumes in 1942.Nuclear Omnicide~759~Ball, Desmond, and Jeffrey Richelson, eds. StrategicNuclear Targeting. Ithaca, NY, and London: CornellUniversity Press, 1986. LC 85-48195. ISBN 0-8014-1898-4.In the preface to this truly remarkable collectionof authoritative articles on American, Soviet, British,and French nuclear targeting plans, the editors statethat "Declassified U. S. nuclear war plans of the late1940s and early 1950s showed that the target planningprocess had frequently been arbitrary and inefficientGenocide and Modern War 139