Citation

Kaempffert W. Am. J. Sociol. 1941; 46(4): 431-444.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1941, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.2307/2769916

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The course of military technology follows closely the course of industrial technology. There is the same "cultural lag," the same dependence on "outside" inventors (civilians in this case) for revolutionary techniques. Sombart has expounded the thesis that capitalism developed under the impetus of war. In this article the technological relation of military progress to industry, science, and invention is traced. It is shown that both science and technology owe much to military necessity and that war has been a powerful social force in the evolution of the physical sciences. Last, it is brought out that military organization and military life have made their impression on industry, with the result that workers are subjected to a discipline much like that of an army and that the military line and staff have been copied by industry. Though military needs have been the inspiration of physical scientists it is not to be concluded that without war there would be no science. Though backward, the biological sciences have developed apparently without any direct or indirect military encouragement.