Weapons: An International Encyclopedia from 5000 B.C. to 2000 A.D., Updated Edition

by The Diagram Group and David Harding

Book Overview

Weapons is one of the bestselling books on armament ever published. This definitive guide covers the entire history of weapons, from the earliest, most primitive instruments up to remarkable advances... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312039506
• ISBN13: 9780312039509
• Release Date: April 1991
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 2.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.4" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Highly Recommend for all ages!

My 7yo son absolutely LOVES this book! [Tho photos are not in color only black & white] That is definitely NOT a negative as there's SO much information on every weapon! This is definitely must ha ebook for a weapon lover & a great tool to use for history hours during homeschooling if your child is obsessed with weaponry. Don't let me stating my son is only 7 scare you from this book his father & Grandfather even enjoyed it,so much so all 3 of them couldn't put it down until they read the whole thing front to back!

If you are interested in Military History buy any version of this book available

If you are interested in Military History buy any version of this book you can find. As a lifelong student of military history I highly recommend this book. For me it is the "how it works" of weaponry and warfare. This book offers excellent diagrams and explanations. I often refer to it when looking for references to arms. Buy it - you will not be disappointed.

Weapons organized by function rather than era or region

"Weapons" is rare, possibly unique among reference works on arms; it is organized by function rather than era, region, or alphabetically. Accordingly, you'll see a current police baton on the same page as a several thousand year old club. The functions begin with arming the hand (a rock, for example) and proceeds (more or less) by complexity, ending with aircraft, missiles, nukes, etc. Without a doubt, there are better works on weapons of an individual era, or specific classes of weapons, but there is no better survey or overview of weapons. The omissions that I noticed were extremely rare (and dead-end) technologies that even soi-disant experts might be ignorant of. True, not every rifle ever manufactured is mentioned, but every major operating principle is. On the other hand, it included some little-known and exotic arms that illustrated major principles, for example, the 13mm air rifle that was used by the Austrians during the Napoleonic wars. Exotic, but not included because it is exotic, included to illustrate the principles of projectile weapons that use compressed gas as propellant (rather than a chemical reaction). For what it is, a survey of tools of violence, "Weapons" is without equal. The organization makes it very accessible and easy to use. Throughout, the authors write in such a was as to educate without a condesending or arrogant tone. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Great Information!

A greta overview to the history of weapons. Really nice book. Plenty of diagrams, pictures, and really deep explanations. This is a great companion to every arm chair historian or anyone who is interested in military history. Teachers may well like to have a copy in the classroom to channel the fascination young boys have with guns, knives, swords and bombs into the learning process.Especially nice is the section on Nuclear weapons. A very detailed accoutn of the effects of nuclear weapons, thier tactical use and specifics including maps that show the how the blast radius of a 100 Megaton bomb could effectively put an end to a sizable portion of britain. Also given are details on radiation behavior and the effects of varying RAD doses as well as explanations as to the various terminology and accronyms such as ICBM, SLBM, IRBM, MIRV ect. It even has a nice table showing various blast yields and the corresponging blast radius and thermal effects. For instance a 10 Megaton bomb would give someone standing 35 miles away first degree burns! There is also a good section on Bio weapons and a very good section on Chemical weapons.information on more dated weapons of war are also very good, though not always with as much depth. But the scope is the strong point, everything from maces, to chain mail, to bronze swords, to wooden clubs, to pole arms and pikes, to bows and arrows, to flint lock muskets, to samuri swords to self proppelled artillery. It's ALL here. Dont expect to find a complete guide to every specific model of tank or fighter, or expect to find a complete covereage of every singe machine gun, but short of actually listing and covering every single weapon ever made, this really covers all of the history of man's quest to find better ways of destroying himself.

I am Happy

Many a years ago I recieved this book as a gift. I read it cover to cover many times. Unfortunatly I lost it. I've searched for the longest time on and off to find it and now I have. If you like facts this will keep your attention for many an hours. By far the most outstanding and comprehensive book I have found.

Read cover to cover, tons of info from shape of swords to ra

This book is a true encyclopedia of weapons. I highly recommend it