Beating plowshares into swords : the political economy of American warfare, 1606-1865 / Paul A.C. Koistinen.

1. The Political Economy of Warfare in America -- Pt. 1. Economic Mobilization for War: The Preindustrial Stage. 2. The American Revolution. 3. The Political Economy of Warfare: 1790-1815 -- Pt. 2. Economic Mobilization for War: The Transitional Stage. 4. The Political Economy of Warfare: 1815-1860. 5. Economic Mobilization in the North. 6. Union War and Navy Departments. 7. Union Civilian Organization. 8. Economic Mobilization in the South. 9. Confederate War and Navy Departments. 10. Confederate Civilian Organization.

Koistinen describes how an undeveloped "preindustrial" economy forced Americans to fight defensive wars of attrition like the Revolution and the War of 1812. By the time of the Mexican War, however, a gradually maturing economy allowed the United States to use a much more offensive-minded strategy to achieve its goals. The book concludes with an exhaustive examination of the Civil War, a conflict that both anticipated and differed from the total wars of the industrialized era.

Koistinen demonstrates that the North relied upon its enormous economic might to overwhelm the Confederacy through a strategy of annihilation while the South bungled its own strategy of attrition by failing to mobilize effectively a much less developed economy.