THE GUNPOWDER AGE: CHINA, MILITARY INNOVATION, AND THE RISE OF THE WEST IN WORLD HISTORY

Abstract

Tonio Andrade'sThe Gunpowder Ageis a big book. It spans roughly 800 years, in both China and Europe. Its boldest claims concern China, but Andrade delves into European history as well, making it a challenge for any one scholar to assess his evidence and arguments. Because China specialists would want to know how historians specializing in European warfare and in Western science and technology evaluate Andrade's challenges to received wisdom, theJournal of Chinese History’s editor and editorial board invited historians outside the China field to contribute to a joint review. We succeeded in recruiting a distinguished panel, all of whom have written extensively on these issues: David Parrott, author of such books asThe Business of War: Military Enterprise and Military Revolution in Early Modern Europe; Philip Hoffman, author most recently ofWhy Did Europe Conquer the World?; Stephen Morillo, author ofWar in World History, among other books; and Ian Inkster, author ofScience and Technology in History: An Approach to Industrial Development, among other books. This introduction provides an overview of the discussion so far, and a few additional observations from a historian who has also tried his hand at Sino-European comparisons.