The Gunpowder Age

"China invented gunpowder, guns, and bombs, so how did the West overtake, defeat, and humiliate the Chinese by the nineteenth century? Tackling one of history‘s biggest unsolved mysteries, The Gunpowder Age is indispensable to debates in world history--and as exciting, dramatic, and engaging as a novel." --Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel "This is a marvelous book and one of the most enjoyable works of military history, Chinese history, and East/West comparison that I have read in years. The reader learns many wonderful things, from the impressive history of early gunpowder weapons in China to China‘s ability to consistently defeat European expeditions in the 1600s. Andrade makes an original and vitally important contribution to debates about these fields and subjects." --Jack Goldstone, author of Why Europe? The Rise of the West in World History, 1500-1850 "At last we have a history of gunpowder that has been reconstructed as it should be, from both ends of the Eurasian continent. With the vigilance of the good historian and the zest of the good storyteller, Tonio Andrade argues brilliantly that the gunpowder age was as much the creation of China as of Europe. Let the controversy begin." --Timothy Brook, author of Mr. Selden‘s Map of China "The Gunpowder Age is an important revisionist history that brings together a very impressive amount of new information and interpretation, and will be essential reading, much debated and built on by scholars of the early modern histories of both Europe and China." --John E. Wills, Jr., author of 1688: A Global History, and The World from 1450 to 1700 "Tonio Andrade‘s engaging book overturns much received wisdom about gunpowder warfare and the West‘s ‘Military Revolution.‘ Examining the development of gunpowder weapons in China and Europe, he shows that the Chinese consistently experimented with and adopted new weapons to suit their needs, but that their dynamic empire eventually fell victim to its own military successes. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the relationship between war, society, and state in Asia or Europe." --Kenneth M. Swope, author of The Military Collapse of China‘s Ming Dynasty, 1618-44 "The Gunpowder Age is history that reads like a detective novel, telling a fascinating story that transforms our understanding of the impact of weapons technology." --S.C.M. Paine, author of The Wars for Asia, 1911-1949