Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace by James WallaceReview by: Eliot A. CohenForeign Affairs, Vol. 77, No. 2 (Mar. - Apr., 1998), pp. 147-148Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20048813 .

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which has drafted women since its

inception, merits only one paragraph in this work. That the Israelis have

excluded women from combat since

1949 is tersely noted in one spare sen

tence and not discussed. Such unwill

ingness to look at inconvenient facts

vitiates any usefulness the work might otherwise possess.

On the Roadlo Total War: The American

Civil War and the German Wars of

Unification, i86i-i8yi. edited by

STIG FORSTER AND J?RG NAGLER.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 705 pp. $84.95.

Some historians have described total

war as an artifact of this century, but

its roots lie in the terrible decade of

conflict described in this volume.

The editors, working through the

German Historical Institute in

Washington, assembled the leading historians of this period in the

United States and Germany to

discuss the wars that forged two

of the greatest powers of modern

times. The result is a rich, indeed

profound, study of war in its J0%?5?>

many aspects. In their ex- ?^^irft

ploration of such issues //SE??fff???a as mass mobilization, UmEUl?^k civil-military relations, flPHDwffiBUW and popular attitudes \\ ?~ M

to war, many of these VV t 1^ essays shed light on is- ^U^^J ^' jd sues that remain with

^^J?ilfeL militaries to this day. This

G^V^ is comparative history ^^^Hj

its very best. *^? ^^^ *

The Squandered Computer: Evaluating the

Business Alignment of Information

Technology, by paul a. strassmann.

New Canaan: The Information

Economics Press, 1997, 426 pp. $49.00. It would be difficult to find an author

with better credentials to speak about the

applications of information technology in

the workplace: Strassmann has served as

chief information officer at the General

Foods, Kraft, and Xerox corporations and

as a senior Defense Department official.

Despite or, rather, because of this extensive

background, he has withering comments

to make about the waste of computer resources in most industries. But the book

has much more, including a

chilling discus

sion of international information crime, which he believes national police and

military forces cannot adequately counter.

Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to

Control Cyberspace, by james

Wallace. New York: John Wiley,

!997> 307 PP-$24-95 The author's previous book, Hard Drive

(1993), began the story of Bill Gates and _. Microsoft; it did very well, a

^ "^^ fact that the author will not

f / y-J^k let his readers forget.

Vmj/?^^?^^ Nonetheless, this sequel,

i^fB?f^^\ like its predecessor, gives

rW|iy__ JOE an exciting and clear

-^ #/#j| account of life at the

v W

? via leviathan of the software

yLm*r Sj?t industry. The emphasis

ty\^yr^ * -

here, however, is

__^^T? <4^ different: how Gates

^7 *?b / and Microsoft t^^?^^ --y missed out on the

^v^i ^__l___rSr3 significance of the * - n?^^r?l

Internet as the ?s**? ^=?*r__

" " dominant force in

FOREIGN AFFAIRS March/April i998 [147]

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personal computer use, and what they did

to turn the tables on upstart competitors such as Netscape. Hostile Justice Depart

ment officials, dissatisfied customers, and

determined rivals will not have much

success in breaking Microsoft's grip, if

this book is to be believed. The complete absence of non-American players in this

game is a striking and important fact.

Bombshell: The Secret Story of Ted Hall and Americas Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy,

by Joseph Albright

and MARCiA KUNSTEL. NewYork:

Times Books, 1997,352 pp. $25.00. The general story has been told before,

but this is the first close look at Ted Hall, one of the most important of the Soviet

spies who passed to his masters many of

the secrets of the atom bomb. Hall was a

brilliant and immature physicist who

subsequently fled to Great Britain. He

cooperated, to at least a limited degree, with the authors of this story, who have

also drawn heavily on declassified docu

ments, including, in particular, decrypted Soviet communications with their agents in the United States. Eeriest of all is Hall's

concluding two-page letter to the au

thors; unrepentant, the aged traitor

contends that the 19-year-old youth "had the right end of the stick."

Making the Corps, by thomas e.

ricks. New York: Scribner, 1997,

320 pp. $24.00. Boot camp is a staple of old movies and,

until the early 1970s, the real life of many, if not most, young American males. In a

shrewd and well-crafted study, the de

fense reporter of The Wall Street Journal

reacquaints us with a phenomenon too

often treated in clich?s. Ricks followed

Platoon 3086 through boot camp and

beyond, tracing the evolution of 63 young men (not all of whom made it through) from a motley crew of unruly youngsters into disciplined marines. As a study in

anthropology alone this would be worth

reading?the rites of passage, the curious

military dialect, the tribal values im

printed on the impressionable young.

But there is a deeper and darker message here. Ricks believes that the Marine

Corps has estranged itself from American

society. For uttering similar sentiments

last year in an uncouth and offensive

manner?specifically, describing the

marines as "extremists"?Assistant Secre

tary of the Army Sara Lister was hounded from office. This book is far wiser and more

perceptive, but it has an equally disturbing conclusion. A must-read for those con

cerned with civil-military relations in the

United States.

In Pursuit of Military Excellence: The Evolution of Operational Theory,

by

shimon NAVEH. Portland: Frank

Cass, 1997,398 pp. $59.50. Not an easy read, but an important one.

Written by a distinguished Israeli general, and drawing on a staggering array of pri

mary and secondary source materials in

four languages (and from multiple national

archives), it describes the development of

German, Soviet, and American thinking about operational art?the level of war

between strategy and tactics. Naveh argues that operational art became manifest in

American operations in the Persian Gulf.

Of particular interest is the author's notion

To order any book reviewed or advertised in Foreign Affairs, fax 203-966-4329.

[148] FOREIGN AFFAIRS-Volume 77 No. 2

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