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This revealing collection assembles a host of articles that have proved vital to the development of logistics as we know it today. Including little-known yet significant pieces, the volume covers influences ranging from systems theory to transport economics.

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Is Logistics a science? - The importance and impact of logistics as a function which is critical to the success of companies, of entire industries, and even of nations competing in the global economy, is no longer questioned today. Logistics, within a few decades, has established itself firmly as a profession, an important field of sophisticated managerial practices, and as a large, powerful industry. But in the academic world the question of its status and identity as a science is still being debated.

This volume aims to contribute to this debate in two ways:

It offers a selection of "classical", in some cases hard to access original international contributions to the evolution of the field in one convenient volume of readings. As such, it should be useful to students of the field, to researchers, and to practitioners who are interested in tracing the logistical ideas and instruments they are using down to their conceptual "roots".

Beyond that, by the arrangement and commentaries to the original materials, the editors are proposing their own innovative interpretation of the evolution and identity of the "Science of Logistics". It is an invitation to further debate the potential and future of logistics.

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The "roots´ of logistics: Physical distribution and traffic management.-How logistics understanding evolved.- Definitions changing during four decades.- Attempts to concretize logistics as a science and to establish a theoretical framework.- Instruments, practices, and methodologies of logistics.

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From the book reviews:
"As an Operations Researcher ... I welcomed the opportunity to dig up the roots of this discipline, to understand its history and how various disciplines contributed to it. ... The editors of the Roots of Logistics, through casting their net very wide in researching the history of this important discipline, were indeed, able to offer ´A Reader of Classical Contributions to the History and Conceptual Foundations of the Science of Logistics.´" (Hans Ittmann, IFORS Newsletter, Vol. 8 (4), December, 2014)

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