Gunpowder, Explosives And the State: A Technological History [Hardcover]

Brenda J. Buchanan (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0754652599 | ISBN-13: 978-0754652595 | Publication Date: May 30, 2006

Gunpowder studies are still in their infancy despite the long-standing civil and military importance of this explosive since its discovery in China in the mid-ninth century AD. In this second volume by contributors who meet regularly at symposia of the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC), the research is again rooted in the investigation of the technology of explosives manufacture, but the fact that the chapters range in scope from the Old World to the New, from sources of raw materials in south-east Asia to the complications of manufacture in the West, shows that the story is more than the simple one of how an intriguing product was made. This volume is the first to develop the implications of the subject, not just in the sense of relating it to changing military technologies, but in that of seeing the securing of gunpowder supplies as fundamental to the power of the state and imperial pretensions. The search for saltpetre, for example, an essential ingredient of gunpowder, became a powerful engine of sea-going European trade from the early seventeenth century. Smaller states like Venice were unable to form these distant connections, and so to sustain a gunpowder army. Stronger states like France and Britain were able to do so, and became even more powerful as the demand for improved explosives fostered national strengths - leading to a development of the sciences, especially chemistry, in the former case, and of manufacturing techniques in the latter.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brenda J. Buchanan is a Research Fellow in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath, UK.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 425 pages
• Publisher: Ashgate Pub Co (May 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0754652599
• ISBN-13: 978-0754652595
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,532,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unbalanced level, November 4, 2006

By 

Marco Morin (Venice, Italy.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gunpowder, Explosives And the State: A Technological History (Hardcover)

This second volume edited, like the first one Gunpowder: The History of an International Technology, by Brenda J. Buchanan, is an anthology of 20 essays on gunpowder, its history and production. And like in the first one, the academic rank of the various entries is not even but, unfortunately, this time the differences appears to be much more marked. Together with some very remarkable entries (for example: The Indian Response to Firearms, 1300-1750, The Barcarena Gunpowder Factory, Portuguese Overseas Gunpowder Factories, Gunpowder Manufacture in Cairo, Breech-loading Guns with removable Powder Chambers) we find a quantity of essays of very scant relevance and/or of inadequate scholarship.
It is a pity and, for a third volume we look forward to read, we really hope that the Editor will select the material with more awareness and more rigorous criteria.