Firepower: How Weapons Shaped Warfare

In this wide-ranging review of the history and impact of gunpowder weaponry on modern society from the late Renaissance to the Atomic Age, Lockhart (military and European history, Wright State Univ.; The Drillmaster of Valley Forge) argues that gunpowder weaponry technology had wide ranging effects on warfare and upon the nations and societies that prepared for and engaged in warfare. Lockhart traces the history of the applications of gunpowder in land, sea, and air warfare over this 500-year period, arguing that this military technology not only changed warfare dramatically but had very significant effects on the societies of its practitioners. His exploration of the history of firearms and warfare is detailed and broad, ranging from infantry rifles, artillery, tanks, airplanes, and warships. Firearms, in his view, transformed warfare dramatically, and those changes significantly contributed to other great transformations such as improvement of transportation systems, more advanced technology, industrialization of national economies, the organization of government, creation of professional standing armies and navies, government financing, broader participation of citizenry in national militaries, and a changed international world order.