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A beautifully presented guide to 50 weapons and their historical impact on civilization. Fifty Weapons that Changed the Course of History is a fascinating guide to the arms and armaments that have had the greatest impact on the development of human civilization. Like the other titles in this series, the book organizes the weapons into brief illustrated chapters. Concise narratives describe the weapons, the who, where, when, why and how of their introduction and uses, and explain their influence in one or more of four categories -- Social, Political, Tactical, and Technological. The stories span human history, from our hunter-gatherer ancestors who devised the spear and the wheel, which brought about the war chariot, to gunpowder, which democratized warfare and has been the basis for almost every weapon used in war from that point on.