The story of the 100 most influential weapons in history. Our history has been shaped and changed by weapons: the smallest advances in weapons development have helped to build and overthrow empires, changed the course of civilization, driven modern technology, and won wars. For thousands of years, individual pieces of weaponry have come to symbolize struggles and nations, from the Roman gladius to the English longbow, and from the flintlock musket through to the AK47. This book reveals the weapons that had the greatest impact on our history, explaining how and why they came to prominence, and uncovers the lasting effect they had on the world.
Our history has been shaped and changed by weapons: the smallest advances in weapons development have helped to build and overthrow empires, changed the course of civilization, driven modern technology, and won wars. For thousands of years, individual pieces of weaponry have come to symbolize struggles and nations, from the Roman gladius to the English longbow, and from the flintlock musket through to the AK47. This book reveals the weapons that had the greatest impact on our history, explaining how and why they came to prominence, and uncovers the lasting effect they had on the world.
This book takes a dramatically original approach to the history of humanity, using objects which previous civilisations have left behind them, often accidentally, as prisms through which we can explore past worlds and the lives of the men and women who lived in them. The book's range is enormous. It begins with one of the earliest surviving objects made by human hands, a chopping tool from the Olduvai gorge in Africa, and ends with an object from the 21st century which represents the world we live in today. Neil MacGregor's aim is not simply to describe these remarkable things, but to show us their significance - how a stone pillar tells us about a great Indian emperor preaching tolerance to his people, how Spanish pieces of eight tell us about the beginning of a global currency or how an early Victorian tea-set tells us about the impact of empire. Each chapter immerses the reader in a past civilisation accompanied by an exceptionally well-informed guide. Seen through this lens, history is a kaleidoscope - shifting, interconnected, constantly surprising, and shaping our world today in ways that most of us have never imagined. An intellectual and visual feast, it is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books published in years.
World War 1 was a global military conflict. It began as a skirmish between Serbia and Austria-Hungary with the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand in June 1914 and was transformed into a European war when Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914. The loss of life was unequalled, with some 8 million solders and more than 6 million civilians dying during four years of stagnant trench warfare and in failed attacks. It was the first time that many of the military technologies we now take for granted were seen, including aircraft, submarines and tanks. Yet, these were overshadowed by more established weapons such as machine guns, and artillery, the most lethal weapon of all. This visual encyclopedia looks at the key weapons used during the Great War. Each is listed chronologically within sections on the Army, Air Force and Navy. Each weapon features a brief history with a description on how it was used and key specifications, such as calibre, magazine, system, length, weight and muzzle velocity. The first section on Army Weapons features weapons used by the armies and infantry men, such as mortars, rifles and tanks. This is followed by Airforce Weapons and Airships, which includes bombers, fighter aircraft and Zeppelins. Finally Naval Weapons features the warships of Germany's Imperial Navy, the Royal Navy and the Allied powers' fleets, from the early battleships to more modern dreadnoughts and destroyers. From rifles, the main weapon used by British infantry men, to machine guns which needed four to six men to work them, and from tanks which were used for the first time during the battle of Somme to the new torpedo-boats whose main targets were the older battleships and more modern dreadnoughts, this is a detailed and fascinating guide to the military technologies developed during the First World War. Illustrated with more than 180 evocative contemporary photographs, the book will offer new insights for both general and specialist readers.
Discover the truth about strange and ancient weapons like the atlatl, the sarissa, the urumi and the maka pahoa ko'oko'o in this fascinating history of weapons.
Only weeks after the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944, a surprising cargo—crates of books—joined the flood of troop reinforcements, weapons and ammunition, food, and medicine onto Normandy beaches. The books were destined for French bookshops, to be followed by millions more American books (in translation but also in English) ultimately distributed throughout Europe and the rest of the world. The British were doing similar work, which was uneasily coordinated with that of the Americans within the Psychological Warfare Division of General Eisenhower's Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, under General Eisenhower's command. Books As Weapons tells the little-known story of the vital partnership between American book publishers and the U.S. government to put carefully selected recent books highlighting American history and values into the hands of civilians liberated from Axis forces. The government desired to use books to help "disintoxicate" the minds of these people from the Nazi and Japanese propaganda and censorship machines and to win their friendship. This objective dovetailed perfectly with U.S. publishers' ambitions to find new profits in international markets, which had been dominated by Britain, France, and Germany before their book trades were devastated by the war. Key figures on both the trade and government sides of the program considered books "the most enduring propaganda of all" and thus effective "weapons in the war of ideas," both during the war and afterward, when the Soviet Union flexed its military might and demonstrated its propaganda savvy. Seldom have books been charged with greater responsibility or imbued with more significance. John B. Hench leavens this fully international account of the programs with fascinating vignettes set in the war rooms of Washington and London, publishers' offices throughout the world, and the jeeps in which information officers drove over bomb-rutted roads to bring the books to people who were hungering for them. Books as Weapons provides context for continuing debates about the relationship between government and private enterprise and the image of the United States abroad.
Critical Acclaim for Secret Weapons of World War II "Breuer has produced yet another collection of rip-roaring tales. . . . A delightful addition to the niche that Breuer has so successfully carved out." -Publishers Weekly "It is Breuer's portrayal of the competition for technological superiority between the Allies and the Nazis that grabs the reader and shows the significance of each wartime discovery and invention." -State Journal-Register, Springfield, Illinois In the fast-paced, suspenseful Secret Weapons of World War II, noted military historian William Breuer chronicles the clandestine battle that occurred between the brilliant scientists and codebreakers of the Allies and the Axis powers. Re-creating the covert missions, hoaxes, spying, conspiracies, and electronic sleuthing, Breuer deftly uncovers the spectacular feats of the fascinating men and women who determined the outcome of the war-providing an unprecedented look at the least-known operations and plots conducted by both sides.
