Tools of War - Jeremy Black

Okay, here's a challenge for you; first compile a list of the inventions of military usage that mankind has devised since the year dot. Then, from that massive list, pick 50 or so that you think have made the biggest impact on the world and it's goings on.
Third challenge - justify them.

Tough call, ain't it?

Have no fear of being swamped in dusty cupboards though, Jeremy Black has done all the work for you, including sections on Stone and Metal (the very first weapon of all was surely a lump of stone plonked onto someone elses' head), Shields, Armour, Chariots, Siege Engines, the Macedonian Sarissa, the Roman Gladius, Stirrups, Longbows, Gunpowder, Rifles, Bayonets, the Minie Ball, Railways, Steamships, Radio, the Machine Gun, Ironclad ships, Submarine and the Torpedo amongst many others. This is how he justifies picking the longbow:

"Experienced archers could manage 8 to 10 arrows a minute. With this shooting rate, the 5,000 English archers on the field of battle that day could launch 40,000-50,000 arrows a minute, or 700 a second. French infantry and cavalry alike were decimated under the barrage of deadly missiles, and the Battle of Crecy was won for the loss of only 200 English soldiers, to nearly 10,000 French dead. The conquest of France beckoned..."

So, was the longbow the most significant weapon in the course of history? Or the iron sword, stirrup or chariot that allowed the victories of the great early empires of the East? Though gunpowder, the flintlock and the Gatling gun caused more carnage, did they cause swifter victory? And could anything compare to the effects - militaristic and economic - of the mass military industrialization of the World Wars, with tank, B52, V rocket ...and the atomic bomb? Or must all bow before the new weapons of stealth and precision of the 'military information age'? "Tools of War" tells, chronologically, the stories of 50 of the most significant advances in military technology and, in doing so, provides an insight into the history of warfare and conquest.
Each chapter focuses on a specific technology, from the Stone Age to the information warfare age, which has conferred a decisive advantage on the user and changed the way in which war is waged. Author Jeremy Black discusses the specific engagements or campaigns where the weapon had most effect, providing the reader with a crash course in military history as well as an overview of world history itself.

An interesting little book with a unique slant on many things.

6 out of 10