Firearms

The gun (cannon, musket, rifle, machinegun, etc.) has been the prime tool of war for most of a thousand years. The Chinese invented it, but it was the Europeans who refined it and made it an instrument of world hegemony. That mysterious migration of technology and obsession from east to west is the subject of Kenneth Chase's insightful book, along with what firearms did to and for Turks, Mughals, Japanese, and all the rest of us. - Alfred W. Crosby, Professor Emeritus, University of Texas, Austin Kenneth Chase's book is indeed a delight and a great achievement. His central claim is that each of the major agrarian governments of Eurasia used gunpowder weapons in a rational way, and that difference depended on geographical circumstances, not on cultural traditions or soldiers' stubborn affection for horses. The breadth of information and the precision of his interpretation are exhilarating. Chase unites extraordinary learning with even more extraordinary wisdom and presents them to us in easy, graceful prose. - William H. McNeill, Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago, author of The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force and Society Since A.D. 1000(1982) The particular value of this wide-ranging and well-written work on a crucial period in military history is its author's strong grasp of the situation in East Asia. It is unusual to have such a specialist write more widely on the topic, and this gives Chase a distinctive voice. His particular concern is the relationship of nomads to firearms and he carefully links this to the respective success and failure of individual military systems. Chase's book will play a major role in the discussion of early-modern military history. - Jeremy Black, Professor in History, Exeter University A tour de force of scholarship that should become a fundamental text and resource for all interested in world and Asian history. - Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations, University of Pennsylvania Few works on military history do what Chase manages to do here, develop a specific theory in its widest possible context. - Technology and Culture, Robert Smith As a whole, this book is a remarkable tour de force and should become required reading for students of military history. - Sixteenth Century Journal, James R. Smither, Grand Valley State University The comparative breadth of the analysis is commendable. - Jonathan Grant, Florida State University