Weapon: A Visual History of Arms and Armor

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1465450963 ISBN 13: 9781465450968

Publisher: DK, 2016

A spectacular visual guide to the epic 4,000-year history of weaponry, created in association with the Smithsonian Institution.

Weapon: A Visual History of Arms and Armor tells this epic story of the entire spectrum of weaponry through stunning photography and authoritative coverage, from the stone axes of the earliest warfare to the heavy artillery of today's armies. Take a journey through the centuries, from the Viking sword to the Baker rifle to the AK-47, as you explore the forms and functions of the greatest arms of all time, the warrior types that changed history, and the weapons that changed the face of warfare. Richly detailed catalogs showcase many weapons at their actual size, outlining the timeframe, weight, size, and country of origin to create a comprehensive profile of each.

Now revised and updated to include brand-new content and expanded sections on cannons and modern guns, Weapon: A Visual History of Arms and Armor provides a stunning overview of the tools that have been at the cutting edge of history, determining the rise of kingdoms and the fall of empires.

About the Author:

Roger Ford is the author of dozens of books in the field of military history and weapons technology and systems, including the bestselling The World's Great Machine Guns: From 1860 to the Present Day. R.G. Grant is a history writer who has published more than 20 books, many of them dealing with aspects of military conflict. He has written on the American Revolution, World War I, and World War II, and is the author of DK’s Battle, Warrior, and Flight: 100 Years of Aviation.

From Booklist:

Written by a team of British military historians, this oversize volume seizes attention with the publisher's brand-name design: images surrounded by information-packed captions silhouetted against a white or a black background. Its pictures are sure to snare the substantial audience interested in the history of swords, guns, and body armor. Limiting the subject to portable armaments, the work extends from the first likely weapon (a rock) to the rifles issued to contemporary infantrymen. In most cases, the emphasis is on the tools of the ordinary soldier, his equipage through time explained with arrowed illustrations. The evolution of handheld weaponry is soon apparent, with that of firearms especially prominent. Some guns depicted here will be recognizable (think AK-47) even to those who recoil from guns. Explaining how such lethal equipment works is Weapon's forte; another asset is the comparison of weapon categories across a suite of historical societies. Popular? That's a foregone conclusion. Gilbert Taylor
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