Product Description

When the first tanks lumbered onto the battlefields of the Western Front in 1916, they created an enduring myth and tapped into deep currents in the 20th-century mind: into ideas of unstoppable progress and of technological futurism. The tank, always more than the sum of its mechanical parts, is a social and cultural object, partly mythical, a curious compound of fact and fantasy, surrounded by legend. Going beyond military history, this book examines the tank's development as a 20th-century icon. In some ways it was a product of the artistic imagination (it was prefigured in the work of Leonardo da Vinci and H.G. Wells), and part of its effectiveness as a weapon is its mesmerizing visual impact. It has been a component of many enduring 20th-century images: the Blitzkrieg, the Polish cavalry charge, the Desert War, Tiananmen Square and, in Operation Desert Storm, the harbinger of a new, computer-age warfare of simulators and virtual-reality systems. The book's content encompasses discussion of the tank photo-opportunity (as used by Lenin, Margaret Thatcher and George Bush), women in tanks, and the curious case of the tank in Turkey which, by way of punishment for mechanical failure, was made to stand under guard on a hillside.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #373864 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 509 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Patrick Wright specialises in taking a specific, seemingly narrow subject for scrutiny, and opening it out into a survey of much wider horizons and concerns. A previous work of his, The Village That Died For England, took as its theme the remote, deserted village of Tyneham, Dorset, on the south coast of England, and turned it into a symbol of the entire history of 20th-century Britain: a quite brilliant achievement. And Wright is every bit as unexpectedly illuminating, challenging and broad ranging in his latest study, of the tank. From its lumbering debut appearance in the first full-scale tank attack, at Cambrai on the Western Front in November 1917, to the unforgettable image of the lone protester with his plastic shopping bag, holding up an entire armoured column in Tiananmen Square in 1989, the tank has always inspired awe, pride, terror and even a kind of desperate, hysterical laughter. In its future incarnations, the tank will become the cybertank, if the dreams of the boys at the US Army Armor Center at Fort Knox, Kentucky are ever realised: fully digitised, unmanned machines that will operate in a kind of virtual reality--except, of course, for the maimings and killings inflicted on human flesh, which will have a more old-fashioned kind of reality. Wright is acerbic, combative, powerfully perceptive about the tank as both machine and metaphor for the mechanisation of human life, and his long, hard look at this modern Behemoth, both fascinated and appalled, is utterly compelling. --Christopher Hart

Review
'Wonderful - witty, illuminating and astute. Not just a military history, this book is a tour de force, a cultural history of our dreams and delusions.' Simon Schama; 'An immensely readable, well-researched book, filled with interesting detours, unusual stories and idiosyncratic discussions relating the tank to philosophy, religion, art politics and even necromancy... A highly useful source of amusing and iconoclastic material with which to challenge orthodox military thinking.' General Sir Michael Rose, The Times

Sunday Telegraph, 2 September 2001
(Patrick Wright) remarkably, has succeeded in making his history of this monstrous war machine immensely readable

Customer Reviews

Rambling and Unfocused, but Entertaining
A rambling cultural history of the tank, this book covers a lot of ground, both figuratively and literally, from the social symbolism of the tank in the labor politics of post WWI Britain to the power politics of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Almost always entertaining and well written, this book never really finds its focus. For those seeking a comprehensive an insightful history of the tank, there are glimpses, but not a complete story. For those seeking to understand the tank's role in any particular sphere (from its significance in post-Soviet East Block military culture to the engineering challenges faced in modifying tanks for survival in an era of potent and inexpensive anti-tank weapons) there are hints, but never enough to really sink one's teeth into. In the end on is left a bit dizzy, much is introduced, but no theme is treated in a structured or thorough enough way to contribute much to the reader's understanding. The feeling is that of having met a one of those fascinating and conversation-monopolizing guests at a party: entertaining, and possibly quite knowledgeable, but in the end just entertaining -- and a bit exhausting.

A curious but fascinating oddity
Readers expecting the typical "and then the PzKpfw Ausf. G replaced the Ausf. F in divisional service..." nuts and bolts military history will be deeply disappointed by this book.

Everyone else should enjoy it immensely.

Wright mixes the military, cultural and technical histories of the tank almost arbitrarily, pausing to concentrate on detail occasionally or sweeping over whole decades in half a chapter.

His central obsession is that of the tank as cultural icon - but to understand that he's gone back and explored the origins, uses and abuses of the armoured fighting vehicle, analysed its impact on popular culture, recounted the history of some of its triumphs and tragedies and introduced many of the significant personalities in its history.

Some chapters are plain bizarre - the section on JFC Fuller's relationship with the Great Beast Aleister Crowley is hilarious and deeply worrying - others tend towards straightforward military history or cultural criticism.

A heady mixture of genres, a deeply eccentric and readable book and one that I highly recommend.

A very long, very distracted work
At its core Tank covers the history of the tank from the grindingly slow British vehicles of WW1 to the latest armoured units in Israeli mobile warfare.

There is in-depth discussion of improvements and epic moments such as Kursk. It even shows how the tank has seeped into popular culture and the first hand experiences describing their impact on the battle field is chilling.

The only problem (and it is a major one) is how often Patrick Wright gets hopelessly distracted. There is an entire section on JFC Fuller with Alistair Crowley- interesting but not very relevant and later on there's a very random section on the concept vehicle (a bit like a tank) for homeless people in America. This has nothing to do with the topic and is obviously a pipe dream. The final points aren't about the future of armoured vehicles in combat but about Mums in their large 4x4 vehicles!

The information you bought this book for is there, but at times it's like sifting for gold. This book needs MAJOR editing.

There's a great 300 page tale about the creation and evolution of the tank wrapped in this unnecessarily chunky book. A missed opportunity.