An impressive tour de force. Relying on meticulous research and unpublished archival material, Flint manages the daunting task of bringing a fresh and interesting insight to the events of D-Day. He does so by providing a multi-layered approach, which emphasizes the key social, political, economic, and geopolitical developments that were required in order to turn Churchill’s vision of temporary harbors into actual bridges for the invasion of the Continent. He also does so by questioning the way in which we conceptualize war as events with well-defined geographies and timeframes. . . . By its interdisciplinary nature, [this book will] be a great source for scholars focused on European history, geography and politics in the twentieth century.

Europe Now

In sum, Geopolitical Constructs: The Mulberry Harbours, World War Two, and the Making of a Militarized Transatlantic is an impressive tour de force. Relying on meticulous research and unpublished archival material, Flint manages the daunting task of bringing a fresh and interesting insight to the events of D-Day.... [T]his book... should, by its inter-disciplinary nature, be a great source for scholars focused on European history, geography and politics in the twentieth Century.

Europe Now

In this meticulously detailed book, Colin Flint draws on extensive archival records to document the social and institutional networks that make war possible and in turn demonstrates how geopolitical subjects are themselves transformed by war. Geopolitical Constructs is a pathbreaking book that combines rigorous scholarship and theoretical acumen with skilled storytelling.

- James Tyner, Kent State University,

Se alle

Geopolitical Constructs is a prime example of how the study of geopolitics has been bursting out of its traditional narrow perspectives. Colin Flint takes a crucial military event and contextualizes it in all its political, economic, and social complexity. The result of this well-researched study is an invaluable addition to our understanding of a widely known event that is both convincing and illuminating.

- Peter Taylor, emeritus, Northumbria University,

Colin Flint’s new book excavates the history of World War Two in ways that will be surprising to many people who thought they knew that history forward and backward.  More importantly, he does so in a way that provocatively highlights the material infrastructures that stitched together the transatlantic alliance and re-made the postwar geopolitical order.

- Jason Dittmer, University College London,

Colin Flint’s Geopolitical Constructs provides an innovative, and at times, heart-felt examination of the men and women responsible for the invention and implementation of the Mulberry Harbours – a set of artificial harbours integral to D-Day planning. Both historical and geographical, it shows what can be done when you follow people, objects and places and their mutual entanglements. The Mulberry Harbours may not be as well-known as the Bailey bridge but it was integral to Allied efforts to defeat Nazi Germany. Highly recommended.

- Klaus Dodds, Royal Holloway University of London; author of Geopolitics: A Very Short Introduction,

This innovative book tells a unique story about D-Day, one that does not concentrate on the soldiers who hit the beaches or the admirals and generals who commanded them. Instead, Colin Flint brings engineers, businessmen, and bureaucrats to center stage. Through them, he offers a different way of thinking about war, one that sees war as an ongoing set of processes in which seemingly isolated acts are part of broader historical developments. Developing the concept of geopolitical constructs to understand wars, the author connects specific events to long-term and global geopolitical arrangements. Focusing on the construction of the Mulberry Harbours—massive artificial structures dragged across the English Channel in the immediate wake of the invading force—Flint illustrates how the process of making war links a vast array of people, institutions, and places, as well as past events and future outcomes. He argues that the people who designed and built the Harbours became geopolitical subjects by producing pieces of engineering that helped shape the course of World War Two and the Cold War that followed, which created a militarized trans-Atlantic that remains today. Using previously unpublished archival material to give voice to those who made the Mulberry Harbours and wartime strategy, this original study broadens the historical and geographical scope of how we understand war, showing how the everyday actions of individuals made, and were made by, geopolitical settings.
Les mer
Using unknown archival material to give voice to those who made the Mulberry Harbours to supply the military advance after D-Day and implemented a global military strategy in World War Two, this book brings the “big picture” back to geopolitics, showing how the everyday actions of individuals made, and were made by, geopolitical settings.
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List of Figures Acknowledgments Chapter One: Introduction: The Mulberry Harbours and Ways to Think About War Chapter Two: Geopolitical Constructs: Understanding Global Geopolitical Change Chapter Three: The Scope of the Mulberry Harbour Project: Demanded by Strategy, Made by Committee Chapter Four: Bureaucratic Construct: “Millions spent on a plan which had not been approved” Chapter Five: Good Geopolitical Subjects: “Did we, Sir, do well?” Chapter Six: The Business of Making the Mulberry Harbours: “War may be an intensification in the development of our lives” Chapter Seven: Making Places: “You are probably aware that a scheme has been prepared” Chapter Eight: Making Regions: From “bridge” to “unsinkable aircraft carrier” Chapter Nine: Conclusion: The Legacies of Geopolitical Constructs Bibliography About the Author
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Introduces the concept of geopolitical constructs

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781442266674
Publisert
2016-09-19
Utgiver
Vendor
Rowman & Littlefield
Vekt
517 gr
Høyde
239 mm
Bredde
157 mm
Dybde
22 mm
AldersnivĂĽ
P, 06
SprĂĽk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
226

Forfatter

Om bidragsyterne

Colin Flint is a political geographer and professor in the Department of Political Science, Utah State University.