Soul of the Sword: An Illustrated History of Weaponry and Warfare from Prehistory to the Present

by Robert L. O'Connell

Book Overview

In an elegantly illustrated volume, a noted historian reveals culture, society and history through the saga of war and its implements. Mankind's history has been determined by war. And throughout... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684844079
• ISBN13: 9780684844077
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent, unique, and insightful look at tactics and arms.

Very enjoyable and interesting way of approaching the use and selection of tactics and arms throughout history. Also, very well written and easy to read.

The Anthroplogy of Weaponry

"Soul of the Sword" is a highly readable history about the development and use of weaponry from prehistory to modern times. But O'Connell's book is less about the weapons themselves than it is about how, why and when human beings develop and use those weapons. The book is filled with interesting little insights and "aha!" moments that make it a pleasure to read. For example, historians are fairly certain that prehistoric towns were beset by warfare. Catal Hutuk in Turkey was fortified, and its ruins include flint daggers, baked clay sling balls and mace heads. O'Connell explains that maces were the first weapons designed mainly for killing other people--the mace is not especially useful for hunting animals, many of which are capable of withstanding such blows and are more easily brought down with pointed weapons. But maces were perfect for cracking poorly protected human skulls, at least until the helmet was invented. Unlike spears and arrows, then, maces are unambiguous evidence that people began to make war on each other almost as soon as they had established "civilization".O'Connell describes many subsequent revolutions in weapons and tactics, from arrows and maces to the phalanx to the Pershing II missile. Along the way, it becomes obvious that warriors are a fairly conservative lot--highly effective weapons, such as cannon, rifles, heavy artillery, and machine guns--are for centuries or decades ignored or poorly deployed not because they didn't work, but because they changed the rules of the game. Having said all this, O'Connell seems to be cautiously optimistic about humanity's ability to put aside war. He suggests that organized warfare (as opposed to homicide, which will always be with us) emerged along with settled agriculture. He argues that war is not "instinctive," and that there is thus some hope that advanced democracies can create an environment in which war is no longer a fact of human existence. This is a consummation devoutly to be wished--if the ingenuity used to design weapons and tactics had been devoted instead to peaceful pursuits, the world would be a much nicer place to live in.

O'Connell strikes gold again

Dr. Robert O'Connell, author of Of Arms and Men (1989), has written another excellent book on the history of weapons and warfare with Soul of the Sword. Running to nearly 400 pages, it covers all the major weapon developments on land, sea, and air from the spear to nuclear weapons. All the great classics are here, such as the Trireme, the Gladius, Composite bows, Wheel lock pistols, the Brown Bess .78 caliber flintlock, Ships-of-the-line, Enfield 1853 rifle, Dreadnoughts, Gatling guns, the Sopwith Camel, the Flak 88mm, the T-34, V series rockets - and much more. Very detailed illustrations are also included. A nice touch are the occasional vignettes that accompany the main text, describing little known battles, incidents, or weapons that are of special historical significance, neatly summarized on a page or less. For example, who has heard of the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592 with a fleet of ironclads 250 years before the Monitor and CSS Virginia fought in the Chesapeake Bay? Or the fact that the Ferguson breech loading flintlock proved itself ready for battle when the British used 100 of them at Brandywine Creek in 1777 but was never widely adopted? As with Of Arms and Men, O'Connell is concerned with the heavy influence that culture has exercised on weapon design and employment. He points out numerous historical cases where a new deadly weapon was invented only to be suppressed or discouraged by the reigning military establishment (Spencer repeating rifles, explosive-filled shells before 1850, etc).The only minor distractions are the lack of full-page color pictures for this illustrated volume and O'Connell's tendency to come up with cute chapter titles that do not help the reader know where he is chronologically.In short, this volume will make a nice companion to the other classic works I am proud to display on my library shelf devoted to the general history of weapons and warfare - Brodie's From Crossbow to H-Bomb, Dupuy's The Evolution of Weapons and Warfare, Van Creveld's Technology and War, and O'Connell's own Of Arms and Men.

Excellent writing, rewarding reading!

This highly readable, impeccably researched, well-balanced book is a prime example of what an informed, imaginative author can do with a well-worn subject. Do we really need another illustrated history of weaponry? I would have said no--until I encountered Robert O'Connell's superb book (with well-done illustrations by John Batchelor). O'Connell is something of a renaissance man, a respected defense analyst, a historian, a critically praised novelist...and perhaps that's the key to this book's humaneness, despite the subject. O'Connell never forgets that even the most unusual or most effective weapons are wielded by human beings, against human beings. This isn't simply a book about the machinery of war. It is about devices created by human beings for ferocious human purposes. Laced with anecdotes as entertaining as they are illuminating, this book has equal value for old-hand military historians and interested novices. A fine gift, too, for the "family warrior," military veteran or just that splenetic armchair general who needs to be placated at Christmas (so the rest of us can get on with our celebrations). This is in no way intended as a condescending remark--on the contrary, it is a mark of the author's great skill and talent that he has produced such a handsome book, and one as interesting to a four-star general as to a general reader. Extremely well done, and highly recommended. Also, because of its lucid style, this book would be suitable for a wide range of age groups, from bright teenagers to cranky old professors. First-rate and flawless.

Punctuated Evolution of Weaponry

This is a big, sweeping treatment which integrates advances in weapons and warfare with their political and socioeconomic interactions and ramifications on the scale of world history. And it is brilliantly conceptualized: walled cities become necessary when militant shepherds learned to ride; walled cities, European countries for two hundred years after 1648, and the nations of the world after WWII needed only limited war to maintain the balance of power between them; dictatorships had to tear down city walls and employ mercenaries to control their subjects; small family-owned farms in Greece could produce hoplite phalanxes which were lethal to cavalry and ideal for weekend soldiers, but vulnerable to the Roman short sword; naval warfare appeared on a massive scale with the Phoenician introduction of the triple-levelled galley; guns were manufactured on a massive scale only when they came to need little training to use and less marching because of the construction of railroads; and so on. The story is amazingly detailed and full of fascinating examples: France was able to end the Hundred Years War by liberating seventy castles in little more than a year by the introduction of siege guns; wage inflation in the 16th century forced navies to man their galleys with slaves and prisoners; in 1592 the invading Japanese were defeated by the Korean navy with ships with gun-ports and armored with metal plates. I marvel at O'Connell's masterful grasp of the subject.