Local Anaesthetic

by Günter Grass and Gunter Grass

Book Overview

One of the central difficulties to a right understanding of American civil-military relations is the nature of the U.S. military. Are our armed forces just obedient bureaucracies like most of the Executive branch, or are they vocational professions granted significant autonomy and a unique role in these relationships because of their expert knowledge and their expertise to apply it in the defense of America? To large measure, the answer to this question should determine the behavior of the strategic leaders of these professions, including the uncommon behavior of public dissent. Using the "Revolt of the Generals" in 2006 as stimulus, the author develops from the study of military professions the critical trust relationships that should have informed their individual decisions to dissent. After doing so, he makes recommendations for the restoration of the professions' ethic in this critical area of behavior by the senior officers who are the professions' strategic leaders.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151529574
• ISBN13: 9780151529575
• Release Date: January 1970
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Survives the Test of Time

Thirty years after first reading this book, I still recall the milk teeth carefully kept in a special box. The imagery and characterization stay with you - they echo down the years. I found my old copy last month when cleaning out some old boxes; I set it aside, and read it this week. The book surpassed my memory of the book. Like life, there are unresolved loose ends and this is a good thing.