Product Description

When Chinese alchemists fashioned the first man-made 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, sulphur 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, journalist Jack Kelly depicts the era 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, Cortez, 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #881901 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

About the Author
Jack Kelly is both an accomplished novelist and an experienced author of popular history. He writes regularly for American Heritage, and also has written features about the DuPont family's involvement in the gunpowder industry and the history of fireworks in America. He lives in Milan, New York.

Customer Reviews

You don't have to like gunpowder to love this book
Gunpowder was a great and awe inspiring fun product when it was invented in China about a thousand years
ago, but then the stuff grew up to blast warfare into the modern world before retiring to once again be a great
fun and awe.

Kelly is a good writer who clearly understands history, and offers a clear concise story about the impact of
gunpowder. It helped propel western society to world dominance, even though it was invented and widely used
outside Europe; yet, Europeans made it truly destructive and an element of domination. Kelly quotes a
sixteenth-century diplomat who summed up the conquering mind-set, "Religion supplies the pretext and gold the
motive."

In that vein, he also sums as the character of Samuel Colt "as typically American: abrasive, self-made,
persistent, eminently practical in his thinking, as imaginative as he was mercenary, an opportunist, a liar, a
genius." If these qualities, plus the lust for gold, turned Europeans into world conquerors using gunpowder,
square-rigged ships and a variety of other innovations, then we need hardly be surprised if similar horrors are
used against us.

In other words, gunpowder was the means but not the motive for changing the world. Kelly also suggests "an
irrational antagonism toward non-Christians, Moslems in particular." In other words, gunpowder was perfected by
secular scientists and used by greedy opportunists under the cover of religious fundamentalism to dominate the
world.

Kelly raises these questions; but, quite rightly, leaves them unanswered. This is a book about gunpowder, not
national psyches or ambitions. Kelly outlines the innovative and highly effective uses of gunpowder through the
ages; given his history of the stuff, it leaves every intelligent reader open to ponder the questions of the
multiple roles in which it was used.

Quite frankly, a similar book could be written about the development of square rigged ships "that changed the
world." But then, how many books on dominant weapons systems are needed to repeat the obvious? He offers a
wealth of background and opinions on the early use of gunpowder, then the reader to discern the motives, noble
or otherwise.

His examination falls short of formulae and chemical reaction diagrams, which would have been nice but perhaps
superfluous and possibly dangerous; a careful reader can probably piece together a working formula, but
probably not a dangerous one. It isn't the sort of book that young boys will use to blow up the outhouse; but, it
does present a fascinating glimpse of just what our ancestors had to put up with to make today's world.

Until I read this book, I thought I knew a little about gunpowder -- having made my own "fizz powder" and used
black powder pistols. For me, Kerry opened up a vast new vista that turned my early efforts into a farce and left
my previous knowledge in a thimble. In comparison to my teaspoonful of knowledge, he gave me a bucket of
factinating insights.

You don't have to love gunpowder, loud noises, bombs bursting in air or movies such as "Master and
Commander," to love this book. Kelly makes story of gunpowder relevant for all and leaves you all the more
interested in how our modern world came to be.

full of fact but not much fire
Compile a list of books about guns and you will probably run out of paper. Compile a list of books about how historical events have been affected by gunpowder development; and you will struggle to find more than half a dozen. Guns are sexy and macho ; gunpowder is boring. Unfortunately the development of firearms was retarded for hundreds of years while people struggled with the technical problems of making gunpowder. Gunpowder took about 1000 years to develop and yet approximately 50 years after discovering smokeless powder, we have the atomic bomb. Gun books discuss gunpowder development superficially; this book shows how gunpowder changed historical events and also how some people tried to control events by controlling gunpowder. The book consists of a series of historical stories threaded into which is an account of how these events were affected by gunpowder development. Some of the stories are a bit long winded and it is not always easy to see the link between the story and gunpowder. Looked at overall the book answers many questions about why gunpowder took so long to develop; and gives a superficial guide to the technical problems encountered. The book does successfully fulfil its aim which was to link gunpowder to historical events; it unfortunately has the feel of a boring history book. The author clearly has the technical and historical knowledge to write this kind of book; but you do not get any sense of enthusiasm from the stories. Technically the book is very good but the stories are a bit flat and lifeless in places.