The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security

A good companion-piece to Coram's Boyd biography, this one delves deeper into Boyd's intellectual and theoretical influences. Dr. Hammond covers the second law of thermodynamics, Heisenberg, and the sort of backwards-engineering method Boyd used to analyze and synthesize his way into maneuverability theory. The touchstones of military theorists are also examined here; Boyd's research into...more

A good companion-piece to Coram's Boyd biography, this one delves deeper into Boyd's intellectual and theoretical influences. Dr. Hammond covers the second law of thermodynamics, Heisenberg, and the sort of backwards-engineering method Boyd used to analyze and synthesize his way into maneuverability theory. The touchstones of military theorists are also examined here; Boyd's research into Clausewitz, Jomini, Lenin, Mao, the Prussian practice of Auftragstaktik (or, as we call it today, centralized control and decentralized execution), and the emergence of counterinsurgency study in the wake of Viet Nam. Boyd was a monumental personality (those who met him seemed to either really love him or really hate him) and a little eccentric, but I think this bio delves the deepest into the man's intellectual journey toward some of the most useful military theory developed in the last 50 years.   hide