Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics : The History of the Explosive That Changed the World (Paperback)

by Jack Kelly (Author)
Key Phrases: appalling grandeur, villainous saltpetre, devills birds, The Old Article, Conquest's Crimson Wing, Thundring Noyse (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"A faced-paced book that is historical reporting at its very best, with surprises on almost every page. Kelly's writing style is crisp and edgy, perfect for his subject matter."

Product Description
When Chinese alchemists fashioned the first manmade explosion sometime during the tenth century, no one could have foreseen its full revolutionary potential. Invented to frighten evil spirits rather than fuel guns or bombs-neither of which had been thought of yet-their simple mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal went on to make the modern world possible. As word of its explosive properties spread from Asia to Europe, from pyrotechnics to battleships, it paved the way for Western exploration, hastened the end of feudalism and the rise of the nation state, and greased the wheels of the Industrial Revolution.

With dramatic immediacy, novelist and journalist Jack Kelly conveys both the distant time in which the "devil's distillate" rose to conquer the world, and brings to rousing life the eclectic cast of characters who played a role in its epic story, including Michelangelo, Edward III, Vasco da Gama, CortŽs, Guy Fawkes, Alfred Nobel, and E. I. DuPont. A must-read for history fans and military buffs alike, Gunpowder brings together a rich terrain of cultures and technological innovations with authoritative research and swashbuckling style.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (April 26, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465037224
• ISBN-13: 978-0465037223
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #187,023 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A GOOD FLAWED NARRATIVE, June 12, 2006

By	R. J Szasz "Rod Szasz" (Tokyo, Japan Japan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Reading the other reviews here one would get the impression that Kelly is guilty of some serious flaws in his work. I would think that people like Noman OOOO (reviewer below) is actually guilty of some seriously flawed expectations. (I shall not deal with his expectations of history being amoral -- anyone who writes some rubbish like that has clearly not read any history -- as a quick glance of his book reviews proves: he seems adept on reviews of fantasy books! His moral observations are equally fantastic).

So let's deal with Kelly. He is not a serious student of Gunpowder. He is a narrative historian writing something that should be interesting and enlightening. This he accomplishes admirably. His style and the events he decides to focus upon are very largely wholely subjective. Obviously events like Crecy and the Fall of Constanstinople are pivotal, but other events he describes -- especially his rather American perspective on the importance of the American War of Independence and Civil War -- are wholly his own preference. However he held my interest very well during the whole narrative and I wholly enjoyed his very literate writing style.

It is also of note what Kelly leaves out: there is no description for the British Arms industry; Armstrong-Vickers almost certainly had a greater influence on the development of arms and gunpowder. And that also highlights another "flaw" of this book -- there is a confusion between it being a history of arms and a history of gunpowder.

But all in all what Kelly does write about his writes with flair, heightened tension and he is a very good stylist. I bought it for the airplane and I blitzed through it in about 6 hours. A good read. Is there any higher recommendation...?

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars moderately interesting, June 12, 2006

By	noman (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

A pleasent bit of fluff. seriously marred by the authors 'moral' interjections about those nasty old soldiers or duelists. Note to author: real historians know better (or they should) than to overlay their perjudices, bigotry and moralistic values on another age. :)
a pleasant read, but don't pay full price.


Try:
The Gun and its Development: Ninth Edition
by W. W. Greener

The Spanish Bride
by Georgette Heyer (fiction, based on diaries of the period. gives a nice overview of the Napoleonic wars)

Bow Versus Gun
by John Smythe

Gunpowder and Galleys: Changing Technology and Mediterranean Warfare at Sea in the 16th Century, Revised Edition
by John Francis Guilmartin

Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe : Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology)
by Bert S. Hall

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A simple chemical that changed history, December 2, 2008

By	Ron Braithwaite "Hummingbird God" (El Indio, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

I read 'Gunpowder' some time ago which, in some cases, is the best way to review a book. Smooth writing and catchy phrases usually disappear from the mind after a day or two, more important concepts last longer. Kelly's book is more informational than a page-turner. His basic premise that the invention of gunpowder--no matter who actually invented it--was one of those pivotal discoveries that changed history inexorably and for all time, stands as a certain truth.

Perhaps like other pivotal discoveries--fire, the chipped stone handaxe, the atlatl, the bow and arrow, the shovel, the wheel, the screw and many, many others, the discoveror [s] have disappeared in history. Still, it was discovered, probably quite by accident, and we are all both its beneficiaries and victims. Kelly did a good job of emphasizing something that all of us should have known anyway...but didn't.

Ron Braithwaite, author of novels, "Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God", on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico