Mass and Operational Art The Theoretical Dichotomy in Nineteenth-Century Military Thought

THE PHENOMENON OF MASS AND THE ADVENT OF THE OPERATIONAL MILIEU

Notwithstanding the variety of approaches to the phenomenon of mass, contemporary scholars, as well as nineteenth-century military theoreticians, are in agreement regarding its substance and nature. Most of them also agree on the historical circumstances of the emergence and development of the mass phenomenon. Moreover, they unanimously perceive it as one of the most decisive factors shaping the nature of warfare in the course of the nineteenth century and the First World War.