Managing Men and Machines: U.S. Military Officers and the Intellectual Origins of Scientific Management in the Early Twentieth Century

Abstract

The U.S. Army officer corps experienced an intellectual revolution following the experience of WWI that fundamental altered the relationship between man and machines in war. As a result, officers failed to develop the technology gene and began to think of war as being inherently quantitatively and technological based. This dissertation examines the relationship between technology and the U.S. Army and Navy officers specifically between 1900-1925. Furthermore, the treatise addresses the role of Frederick Taylor and the rise of scientific management within the U.S. Army and Navy.