John Warden and the Renaissance of American Air Power

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John Warden and the Renaissance of American Air Power

John Andreas Olsen

374 pages

Hardcover

June 2007

978-1-59797-084-6

$45.00 Add to Cart
eBook (PDF)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

April 2011

978-1-59797-323-6

$45.00 Add to Cart
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About the Book

****Included on the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force's reading list for 2008 and the Royal Air Force's Centre for Air Power Studies 2008 Reading List****Dr. John Andreas Olsen has written an insightful, compelling biography of retired U.S. Air Force colonel John A. Warden III, the brilliant but controversial air warfare theorist and architect of Operation Desert Storm’s air campaign. Warden’s radical ideas about air power’s purposes and applications, promulgated at the expense of his own career, sparked the ongoing revolution in military affairs. Legendary in defense circles, Warden is also the author of The Air Campaign: Planning for Combat (republished by Brassey’s, Inc. in 1989). Presenting both the positives and negatives of Warden’s personality and impact in this objective portrait, Olsen offers a trenchant analysis of his revolutionary ideas and great accomplishments.

Author Bio

COL. JOHN ANDREAS OLSEN is currently assigned to the Norwegian Ministry of Defence and is a visiting professor of operational art and tactics at the Swedish National Defence College. His previous publications with Potomac Books include John Warden and the Renaissance of American Air Power, A History of Air Warfare, Global Air Power, and Air Commanders.

Praise

“This is a great book because it mixes human relations and career guidance with an overview of modern air power thinking . . . Olsen is to be commended on a fine piece of work.”—RUSI Journal

"This is a publication that pulls no punches and offers no apologies; instead it paints a remarkably honest portrait of one of the few original Air Power theorists in the latter half of the 20th century."—Spirit of the Air

“This is an extremely readable as well as revelatory book. Olsen avoids sensationalizing the fact that the coalition forces were bereft of a comprehensive plan for conducting the air war, and he presents both sides of the Warden argument with skill and sensitivity. John Warden and the Renaissance of American Air Power is a model not only for those writing about air power philosophy but for biographers in general.”—Aviation History

“This well-researched biography of Colonel John A. Warden III is an excellent summary of the ideas that made him the leading air power theorist in the U.S. Air Force in the second half of the twentieth century."—Journal of Military History

“Superbly written.”—Parameters

“Masterful . . . John Andreas Olsen has done an important service in bringing the story of this great airman to light.”—Phillip S. Meilinger, author of The Paths of Heaven: The Evolution of Airpower Theory

Also of Interest

Air Commanders

Edited by John Andreas Olsen

Global Air Power

Edited by John Andreas Olsen

A History of Air Warfare

Edited by John Andreas Olsen

European Air Power

Edited and with an introduction by John Andreas Olsen