Synopses & Reviews
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.
Synopsis
From rocks and arrows to the V2 and the rocket, man has been driven to dominate the world around him, including other humans, by throwing missiles. This lighthearted and interesting book begins in the Pliocene when man became his worst enemy and shows how well-suited the human body is to running and throwing. Missiles became more sophisticated during the Upper Palaeolithic and Crosby ponders whether our developed skill as game hunters had anything to do with the mass extinctions of the Late Pleistocene. Much of the book conside the weapon technology of the Middle Ages, in particular the trebuchet, and the significance of the spread of gunpowder from China. Finally Crosby discusses the development of the bomb and the longest throw' which has carried man into Space.
Synopsis
In Throwing Fire, historian Alfred W. Crosby looks at hard, accurate throwing and the manipulation of fire as unique human capabilities, allowing us to create simple weapons, atomic bombs, and to venture into space. He examines the effects of throwing fire on life on our planet, including species extinctions, the rise of empires and the advance of European Imperialism, and the peril of destructive wars. Throwing fire, which might make Earth uninhabitable for humans, may make it possible for migration to other bodies of our solar system.
Table of Contents
Part I. Who, Why, and How: 1. The Pliocene: something new is afoot; Part II. The First Acceleration, The First Projectiles: 2. The Pliocene and Pleistocene: 'you are what you throw'; 3. The Pleistocene and Holocene 'cooking the Earth'; 4. The Upper Paleolithic: 'humanity and other disasters'; 5. From weapon craftsmanship to weapon technology; Part III. The Second Acceleration: Gunpowder: 6. The Chinese elixir; 7. Gunpowder as centripetal force; 8. Brown Bess to Big Bertha; Part IV. The Third Acceleration: Into Extraterrestrial and Subatomic Space: 9. The V-2 and the bomb; 10. The longest throws; Part V. The Fourth Acceleration.