The Echo of Battle

The Army’s Way of War

ISBN 9780674034792

Publication date: 09/30/2009

From Lexington and Gettysburg to Normandy and Iraq, the wars of the United States have defined the nation. But after the guns fall silent, the army searches the lessons of past conflicts in order to prepare for the next clash of arms. In the echo of battle, the army develops the strategies, weapons, doctrine, and commanders that it hopes will guarantee a future victory.

In the face of radically new ways of waging war, Brian Linn surveys the past assumptions--and errors--that underlie the army's many visions of warfare up to the present day. He explores the army's forgotten heritage of deterrence, its long experience with counter-guerrilla operations, and its successive efforts to transform itself. Distinguishing three martial traditions--each with its own concept of warfare, its own strategic views, and its own excuses for failure--he locates the visionaries who prepared the army for its battlefield triumphs and the reactionaries whose mistakes contributed to its defeats.

Discussing commanders as diverse as Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton, and Colin Powell, and technologies from coastal artillery to the Abrams tank, he shows how leadership and weaponry have continually altered the army's approach to conflict. And he demonstrates the army's habit of preparing for wars that seldom occur, while ignoring those it must actually fight. Based on exhaustive research and interviews, The Echo of Battle provides an unprecedented reinterpretation of how the U.S. Army has waged war in the past and how it is meeting the new challenges of tomorrow.

Praise

The Echo of Battle is a masterpiece. With its appearance, Brian Linn establishes himself as the preeminent military historian of his generation.

—Andrew J. Bacevich, author of The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War
Brian Linn's The Echo of Battle is one of the most significant books ever written on the American military experience. It places him on the top rung of military historians.

—Allan R. Millett, University of New Orleans
Brian Linn's account of the Army's long internal debate over its mission and fighting concepts is timely and provocative. His interpretation renders a tough judgment of the service's past efforts to adapt to change. The Echo of Battle should make today's discussions of how the armed forces will visualize and prepare for future conflict better informed and more self-aware.

—L. D. Holder, LTG, US Army (retired)
Brilliant, original, and very entertaining. The Echo of Battle is an extraordinary lens that brings today's U.S. Army into sharp focus by looking into our past. Brian Linn has written a masterful book.

—Rick Atkinson, author of An Army at Dawn
An unsettling but stimulating review of American military planning.

—Kirkus Reviews
This is a well-researched book, full of insight and good sense.

—Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs
I expect this book to stir considerable controversy and healthy debate. Younger officers may well come to view it as a Bible of sorts. I expect it to sell very well at the Army’s educational institutions where I have been recommending it since reading the first chapter. It has the potential to transform professional thinking in the most positive way. This book demonstrates Linn’s mastery of the language of the profession in readable English, something all too rarely seen.

—Douglas V. Johnson II, Journal of Military History
[A] remarkable new history of how the army anticipated future wars and analyzed past ones...Linn's assessment of army thought in the post-Cold War era is especially enlightening. This is an exceedingly well-crafted book that belongs on all shelves supporting the history of the U.S. military tradition.

—E. A. Goedeken, Choice
Few books could be more timely than Brian Linn's The Echo of Battle: The Army's Way of War. Linn has written a serious and comprehensive intellectual history of the U.S. Army. He traces Army thought from the American Revolution to the war on terrorism. It is hard to imagine a scholar more suited to take on the task...Linn's overview of the Army's efforts to deal with the new world disorder is unparalleled.

—James Jay Carafano, Army