Contact us on (02) 8445 2300
For all customer service and order enquiries

Woodslane Online Catalogues

9780801869945 Add to Cart Academic Inspection Copy

Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe:

Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics
  • ISBN-13: 9780801869945
  • Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
    Imprint: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
  • By Bert S. Hall
  • Price: AUD $73.99
  • Stock: 0 in stock
  • Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
  • Local release date: 16/03/2002
  • Format: Paperback 320 pages Weight: 0g
  • Categories: European history [HBJD]
Description
Reviews
Google
Preview
Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe explores the history of gunpowder in Europe from the thirteenth century, when it was first imported from China, to the sixteenth century, as firearms became central to the conduct of war. Bridging the fields of military history and the history of technology–and challenging past assumptions about Europe's ''gunpowder revolution''–Hall discovers a complex and fascinating story. Military inventors faced a host of challenges, he finds, from Europe's lack of naturally occurring saltpeter–one of gunpowder's major components–to the limitations of smooth-bore firearms. Manufacturing cheap, reliable gunpowder proved a difficult feat, as did making firearms that had reasonably predictable performance characteristics. Hall details the efforts of armorers across Europe as they experimented with a variety of gunpowder recipes and gunsmithing techniques, and he examines the integration of new weapons into the existing structure of European warfare.

""Combines a good grasp of military history with an understanding of the history of technology... Hall manages to integrate his technical discussion into a refreshing reinterpretation of general military history in the period, and his book is an engrossing read.""

Google Preview content