Weapons Grade: How Modern Warfare Gave Birth to Our High-Tech World - Hardcover

Hambling, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786715618 ISBN 13: 9780786715619

Publisher: Carroll & Graf, 2005

Synopsis

David Hambling tells the fascinating story of human ingenuity and the complex world it has created—a world at once safer and yet more perilous than ever. Throughout history, war and the threat of war have driven innovation and accelerated the uptake of new technology—from the nomadic warriors who introduced the stirrup and the kebab to the world, to the British Navy’s funding of Marconi’s newfangled radio. Since 1945 the relationship between military needs and modern business has grown ever closer, especially in the United States.

With the skills of a master storyteller, Hambling traces the history of this relationship in the modern era and shows how precision eye surgery emerged out of the military quest for a “death ray,” how transistors and silicon chips initially helped build better bombs, and exactly why the 747 has such a distinctive shape. Hambling explores the current cutting edge of modern military research as he seeks to identify the technologies that will transform our lives in the decades to come. If history does repeat itself, Weapons Grade is much more than the story of how we got to where we are; it is the story of where we are going, for better or worse.

About this title

About the Author:

David Hambling is a freelance writer and author living in South London. He writes for New Scientist magazine and the science section of the Guardian newspaper among others, specialising in topics relating to military technology. He also explores the wilder side of science in a monthly column in Fortean Times magazine.

From Booklist:

Hambling surveys technologies developed by military research that ultimately found civilian applications, tracing this war/peace crossover effect from World War II to the present. A British defense journalist, Hambling keeps the data about particular weapons to a level manageable by general readers, who will learn the physical principles of a weapon, and its route into the civilian world. Aerospace technology is the preeminent WWII spin-off and, for better or worse, traceable to Nazi-sponsored research. Hambling's coverage of the German jets and rockets emphasizes their teething problems and military effectiveness. Occasionally widening his commentary to analyze the worth of huge expenditures on military research, Hambling also lightens matters with jaunts into common items (microwave ovens, cell phones, T-shirts, sunglasses) seeded by the global conflict. Although Hambling hesitates to predict what contemporary military R & D will reap for future consumers, he does probe the perimeter of this mostly secret research on items that sound like something out of science fiction, such as vortex rings and pulsed energy weapons. Gilbert Taylor
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About this edition

• Publisher: Carroll & Graf
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0786715618
• ISBN 13: 9780786715619
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288