Disputed Decisions of World War II by Mark Thompson
A former Harvard professor of decision science and game theory draws on those disciplines in this review of controversial strategic decisions of World War I. Allied leaders--although outstanding in many ways--sometimes botched what now is termed meta-decision making or deciding how to decide. Operation Jubilee, a single-division raid on Dieppe, France, in August 1942, for example, illustrated the pitfalls of groupthink. In the Allied invasion of North Africa three months later, American and British leaders fell victim to the planning fallacy: having unrealistically rosy expectations of an easy victory. In Sicily in the summer of 1943, they violated the millennia-old principle of command unity--now re-endorsed and elaborated on by modern theorists. Had Allied strategists understood the game theory of bluffing, they might well in January 1944 not have landed two-plus divisions at Anzio in Italy.
“The combination of military history and game theory makes this an excellent addition to the library of those interested in military operations and strategy”—H-Net Reviews
Mark Thompson was a full-time professor at Harvard University from 1975 to 1983 and has been a visiting professor at the Université de Paris and the Universität Bielefeld in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. He taught courses on decision science, game theory, and social program evaluation. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781476680040 |
| ISBN 10 | 1476680043 |
| Title | Disputed Decisions of World War II |
| Author | Mark Thompson |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | McFarland |
| Year published | 2019-12-23 |
| Number of pages | 213 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |