Throwing Fire: Projectile Technology Through HistoryCambridge University Press, 8. apr 2002 - 206 pages In Throwing Fire, historian Alfred W. Crosby looks at hard, accurate throwing and the manipulation of fire as unique human capabilities. Humans began throwing rocks in prehistory and then progressed to javelins, atlatls, bows and arrows. We learned to make fire by friction and used it to cook, drive game, burn out rivals, and alter landscapes to our liking. Our exploitation of these two capabilities figured in the extinction of many species, and may have played a role in the demise of Neanderthals. In historic times we invented catapults, trebuchets, and such flammable liquids as Greek Fire, a napalm-like substance that stuck to whatever it hit and could not be extinguished with water. About 1,000 years ago we invented gunpowder, which led to guns and rockets, enabling us to literally throw fire. Gunpowder weaponry accelerated the rise of empires and the advance of European imperialism. In the 20th century, gunpowder weaponry enabled us to achieve unprecedented mayhem--the most destructive wars of all time. This trend peaked at the end of World War II with the V-2 and atomic bomb, at which point species suicide became possible. Faced with possible extinction should we experience World War III, we have turned our projectile talents to space travel which may make it possible for our species to migrate to other bodies of our solar system and even other star systems. Alfred W. Crosby is the author of the widely popular and ground-breaking books The Measure of Reality (Cambridge, 1996), America's Forgotten Pandemic (Cambridge, 1990) and Ecological Imperialism (Cambridge, 1986). He taught at the University of Texas, Austin for over 20 years. His books have received the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize, the Medical Writers Association Prize and been named by the Los Angeles Times as among the best books of the year. |
Contents
The Pliocene Something New Is Afoot | 7 |
Hominids Become a Keystone Species and Their Own Worst Enemies | 15 |
The Pliocene and Pleistocene You Are What You Throw | 16 |
The Pleistocene and Holocene Cooking the Earth | 40 |
The Upper Paleolithic Humans and Other Catastrophes | 50 |
From Weapon Craftsmanship to Weapon Technology | 70 |
Gunpowder | 93 |
The Chinese Elixir | 95 |
Gunpowder as a Centripetal Force | 107 |
Brown Bess to Big Bertha | 130 |
Into Extraterrestrial and Subatomic Space | 147 |
The V2 and the Bomb | 149 |
The Longest Throws | 173 |
The Fourth Acceleration | 191 |
| 201 | |
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Aborigines American ancestors animals archer armies artillery atlatl Atomic Bomb Australia Australopithecines ball barrel bipedal bombards bones Books bows and arrows burn Cambridge University Press cannon century Chinese Civilisation in China Composite Bows crossbow dart Dornberger earth elephants enemies engine Eurasia Europe European explosive fire-lance firearms firestick firestick farming German giant Goddard Greek Fire Gunpowder Empires gunpowder weaponry Hearthland History Hitler hominids Homo sapiens Human Evolution hundred ignite invented javelin Joseph Needham killed kilometers land late Pleistocene launched London mammoths megafauna megafaunal extinctions meters miles Military millions Mimoyecques missiles Mittelwerk Moon Mughal Oberth Paris Gun Peenemünde perhaps planet Pleistocene extinctions projectile technology reflexed bow rocket Rocket Team saltpeter Schöningen Science and Civilisation scientists shells siege sling solar space travel spears species stone target thousands Throwing Fire tion trans trebuchet Tsiokovsky Upper Paleolithic velocity walls Warfare weapons Wernher von Braun World York