Why read The Gunpowder Age?

Book cover of The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History

Book description

The Chinese invented gunpowder and began exploring its military uses as early as the 900s, four centuries before the technology passed to the West. But by the early 1800s, China had fallen so far behind the West in gunpowder warfare that it was easily defeated by Britain in the Opium…

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Asian history

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Gunpowder Age as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Audrey Kurth Cronin

Author

A key question today about the future of war is who will dominate AI technologies–China or the US & its allies? History offers clues. This book tackles the hot debate about what historians call the great divergence—that is, why, since it invented gunpowder (and other key military technologies), China then fell dramatically behind Europe in the modern era. Andrade goes beyond classic arguments about a gradual 500-year Rise of the West, beyond revisionist arguments about the West shooting ahead only very recently, to craft a third view. Using archival evidence, he lays out a series of key smaller divergences accompanying…

From Audrey's list on the future of technology, innovation, and war.