Customer Reviews

Weapons: An International Encyclopedia From 5000 B.C. to 2000 A.D., Updated Edition

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you pick this book up expecting comprehensive detail on all the world's weapons, you'll be disappointed. You will, however, find a decent survey of many world weapons (with some bias toward the West), and sometimes short descriptions of where/when/how they were used. I find it most useful for looking up an unfamiliar weapon and for finding out what things look like. If you want more scholarly or detailed information, you'll have to hunt a little harder.

A greta overview to the history of weapons. Really nice book. Plenty of diagrams, pictures, and really deep explanations. This is a great companion to every arm chair historian or anyone who is interested in military history. Teachers may well like to have a copy in the classroom to channel the fascination young boys have with guns, knives, swords and bombs into the learning process.

Especially nice is the section on Nuclear weapons. A very detailed accoutn of the effects of nuclear weapons, thier tactical use and specifics including maps that show the how the blast radius of a 100 Megaton bomb could effectively put an end to a sizable portion of britain. Also given are details on radiation behavior and the effects of varying RAD doses as well as explanations as to the various terminology and accronyms such as ICBM, SLBM, IRBM, MIRV ect. It even has a nice table showing various blast yields and the corresponging blast radius and thermal effects. For instance a 10 Megaton bomb would give someone standing 35 miles away first degree burns! There is also a good section on Bio weapons and a very good section on Chemical weapons.

information on more dated weapons of war are also very good, though not always with as much depth. But the scope is the strong point, everything from maces, to chain mail, to bronze swords, to wooden clubs, to pole arms and pikes, to bows and arrows, to flint lock muskets, to samuri swords to self proppelled artillery. It's ALL here. Dont expect to find a complete guide to every specific model of tank or fighter, or expect to find a complete covereage of every singe machine gun, but short of actually listing and covering every single weapon ever made, this really covers all of the history of man's quest to find better ways of destroying himself.

There are some excellent qualities to this book and I am glad I bought it. However, there are some aspects that are severely lacking. The book very well organized but far from comprehensive. For each category it gives only a small sample of the weapons to have been used. For example, the page on composite bows only shows the Turkish and Indian versions without mentioning that these are both splinter groups of the Mongol Empire that spread it's use into both those regions, nor does it mention the Hun bow which were asymmetric nor the ancient Scythians who used these bows around 2000 bce. In most other places the book does spend a small amount of space on the theory behind each weapons use and excels in its brevity - a volume almost as thick could be written for nearly every weapon. However, it also suffers from classic Euro centrism. Its explanation of the conflict between sword theories of cutting versus thrusting is in itself a European theory that does not appear in other cultures. The weapons are grouped by type (knives, missiles, guns, etc.) with an index by region in the back but it is not well documented as to time periods. Some instances such as American Civil War are well presented but most weapons have little more than a name and picture. The Chinese repeating crossbow is mentioned as being used in the 19th century ce but does reference its first appearance hundreds of years before. The pictures themselves are very clear line drawings. I would like to see a future edition with more statistics per weapon (size & weight) a more thorough historical listing and a more international selection of weapons as the title implies. This book has a place on my reference shelf but better serves my role-playing games than my historical research.

"Weapons" is rare, possibly unique among reference works on arms; it is organized by function rather than era, region, or alphabetically. Accordingly, you'll see a current police baton on the same page as a several thousand year old club. The functions begin with arming the hand (a rock, for example) and proceeds (more or less) by complexity, ending with aircraft, missiles, nukes, etc.

Without a doubt, there are better works on weapons of an individual era, or specific classes of weapons, but there is no better survey or overview of weapons. The omissions that I noticed were extremely rare (and dead-end) technologies that even soi-disant experts might be ignorant of. True, not every rifle ever manufactured is mentioned, but every major operating principle is. On the other hand, it included some little-known and exotic arms that illustrated major principles, for example, the 13mm air rifle that was used by the Austrians during the Napoleonic wars. Exotic, but not included because it is exotic, included to illustrate the principles of projectile weapons that use compressed gas as propellant (rather than a chemical reaction).

For what it is, a survey of tools of violence, "Weapons" is without equal. The organization makes it very accessible and easy to use. Throughout, the authors write in such a was as to educate without a condesending or arrogant tone. I can't recommend it highly enough.

THIS is a really good book on weapons. From ancient clubs to m-16 assault rifles. It's indepth as hell. However there is only about 15 actual photos in this book everything else is just drawn but they're good drawings.

If you are interested in Military History buy any version of this book you can find.


As a lifelong student of military history I highly recommend this book. For me it is the "how it works" of weaponry and warfare. This book offers excellent diagrams and explanations. I often refer to it when looking for references to arms. Buy it - you will not be disappointed.

This book is a true encyclopedia of weapons. I highly recommend it

This book was very helpful to me in a great many areas such as civil war weaponry (did you know they had landmines that far back?) and was a great source for historical data, an all around great book. The only problem I had with it was a lack of certain weapons (elephant rifles were not explained or alluded to as well as the only picture of a roman sword was one which was badly damaged.) And non-violent weapons were really not discussed in any great detail. Otherwise it could have gotten 5 stars from me easily.

Many a years ago I recieved this book as a gift. I read it cover to cover many times. Unfortunatly I lost it. I've searched for the longest time on and off to find it and now I have. If you like facts this will keep your attention for many an hours. By far the most outstanding and comprehensive book I have found.

The Diagram Group's "Weapons" is an excellent quick-reference guide to all types of armaments. It consists primarily of line drawings arranged by functionality and drawn to scale. There are also pages of weapons silhouettes organized by area and time period that serve as a quick cross-reference.
As a sword collector, I've found this book to be invaluable when trying to identify an unfamiliar piece. While it doesn't have the depth of a reference like George Cameron Stone's encyclopedia of arms, if you know what the weapon looks like, you can find it quickly, instead of being stuck in the catch-22 of needing to know the piece's name to find out anything. It also includes short sections on weapon histories and theory (for example, the evolution of the cartridge, the uses of various explosives, ballistic trajectories) that make fascinating light reading.
This book should not be considered a definitive reference, but as a starting point, quick guide and pleasant overview it is superb and I recommend it highly.