Weapons – A Book Review

Ok, why would little ole me, a jarhead, be asked to review a book by a publishing company?  Well because it’s all about weapons! 

From the ancient world of 3000 BC to the present day "Weapons – A Visual History Of Arms And Armor" reads like your walking through a museum.

It’s written by a team of British historians and published by DK Publishing who were so kind to send me a copy to check out.  They both set out to describe in vivid detail different weapons across different societies in different times.  A wonderful addition to the book is that the writers decided to not only depict the weapons in pictures but they describe how many of them work, how much they weigh, the kind of soldier or layman who would use it. 

The forward tells the reader what they are in for:

Warfare is older then civilization – in fact it is older then the human race itself, as clues from our hominid ancestors show – and weapons are the tools of the soldier’s trade.  The following pages reveal the importance of weapons, showing how they grew quickly from primitive implements used for hunting wild animals, and soon took on the characteristics that were to define them for thousands of years. 

In the section about early weapons the writers describe the technological innovations of 4000 years ago:

A series of cultural and technological developments in the 2nd millennium BCE changed the face of warfare and allowed states to project their power ever further, garner more resources, and repeat the process until they came up against a stronger foe.  One of these developments was the widespread domestication of the horse.  At the same time, the perfection of bent-wood techniques, allowed spokes to be used on chariot wheels.  Along with the development of a practical composite bow that allowed rapid fire from these new chariots, these developments helped New Kingdom Egypt – which though long politically united, had remained very conservative in its use of military technology – to launch a devasting series of campaigns in the Middle East.

The introduction starts out distinguishing the different categories of weaponry.  Those being bows, arrows, and spears; axes and clubs; swords and daggers; staff weapons; firearms; and armor and helmets.  For each category the authors lay out the development of the particular weaponry and how they were used.

Then the authors split the weapons into time periods.  Those being The Ancient World, The Middle Ages, The Early Modern World, The Revolutionary World, and the Modern World.

They even spend time writing about great warriors throughout history from the Roman Legionary to the US Navy SEAL, and their weapons.

Now take it from this jarhead, if your into weapons you will LOVE this book.  And I’m not just saying that because I got it for free, although that didn’t hurt.  What I do know is that this is the type of book that you can go back to over and over to reference if you have any question whatsoever on weapons throughout history.

Curt

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