¡°Fascinating stories¡¦ Mr. Lockhart writes in an easy, conversational manner¡¦¡±¡ªThe Wall Street Journal
¡°A fascinating new history of weapons technology.¡±¡ªThe Daily Beast
¡°An accessible account of how weapons became part of systems rather than warriors¡¯ tools.¡±¡ªArmy Magazine
"Detailed and broad...Readers of military history (particularly about military technology, warfare, and the effects of these on society as a whole) will find this book interesting."¡ªLibrary Journal
¡°Do new weapons create novel tactics and strategy or simply enhance unchanging doctrines? Paul Lockhart¡¯s exhaustive study of the origins, role, and evolution of gunpowder weapons answers that neither war nor the world itself has ever been the same after the introduction of guns. His tour of the spread of gunpowder weaponry from the fifteenth century to the present is itself a tour de force of facts, analysis, and engaging prose. A riveting history of how five hundred years of gunpowder have changed the way hundreds of millions have lived¡ªand died.¡±¡ªVictor Davis Hanson, author of The Second World Wars
¡°Firepower makes the essential connection between technology and power, from the pike and the arquebus to the dreadnought, tanks, modern artillery, and airpower. The book's great strength is the author's ability to explain even the most complex technologies in simple, graspable terms¡ªbefore tying them to the evolution of warfare and the global struggle for mastery.¡±¡ªGeoffrey Wawro, author of Sons of Freedom, A Mad Catastrophe, and The Franco-Prussian War
"Firepower is a fascinating, rip-roaring ride through the development of modern weapons technology and its impact upon war. Lockhart carefully dispels decades of myths and shows why we need to understand how firearms and war machines, from muskets and machine-guns to battleships and bombs, actually worked."¡ªNick Lloyd, King's College London
Chapter Page
Preface ix
Introduction The Age of the Gun 1
Book I The Gunpowder Revolution, 1300-1800
Chapter 1 The Bombard and the Fortress 17
Chapter 2 The Ship-Killing Ship 40
Charter 3 Pike and Shot 66
Chapter 4 Musket, Bayonet, and Field Gun 94
Chapter 5 The Military Revolution 122
Book II The Age of Revolutions, 1800-1870
Chapter 6 War and Technology in the Age of Revolutions 139
Chapter 7 The Rifle and the Bullet 154
Chapter 8 Shot and Shell 192
Chapter 9 Ironclad 211
Book III The Revolution in Firepower, 1870-1918
Chapter 10 The Great Arms Race and the Great War 235
Chapter 11 The Rifle and the Bullet Revisited 251
Chapter 12 Full Auto 283
Chapter 13 High Explosive 311
Chapter 14 Dreadnought and U-Boat 345
Chapter 15 The Emerging Technologies: Air and Armor 380
Book IV The Twilight of Firepower, 1918-1945
Chapter 16 The Lessons of the Great War 425
Chapter 17 Portable Firepower 438
Chapter 18 The Big Guns 470
Chapter 19 Air...power 501
Chapter 20 The Twilight of the Battleship 534
Epilogue 555
Notes 563
Index 579