Military Geographies. R. Woodward. 2004. Blackwell
Publishing, Williston, VT. 196 pp. $39.95 paperback.
Military impacts tend to summon images associated with the ravages of
conflict: landscapes worn by battle, ruined buildings turned into rubble,
and the horrifying magnitude of people killed. Preparation for armed
conflict, however, is an endless operation that takes place on different
fields. In Military Geographies, Rachel Woodward explores the
imprint of military preparedness on the economic, social, and political
life, with the hope of improving the study of non-conflict military
geography in research and teaching. The themes covered in the book include
(1) geographies of control over space, (2) military economic geographies,
(3) militarized environments, (4) military landscapes, and (5) challenges
to military geographies. These themes focus predominantly on the United
Kingdom's military, with few examples from the United States and
other countries with advanced capitalist economies.