- Published: 30 November 2011
- ISBN: 9781448128112
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 272
Gunpowder
An Explosive History - from the Alchemists of China to the Battlefields of Europe
- Published: 30 November 2011
- ISBN: 9781448128112
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 272
[Ponting's account] fills a school boy's heart with joy
The Observer
Gunpowder... performs an admirable job in synthesizing all the available research on the subject
Ronald Hutton, Times Literary Supplement
A concise and effective history
Robert Winder, New Statesman
A fascinating story, told well and simply... This is an insightful book seen from a refreshing, and non-Eurocentric point of view
Alistair Fraser, Sunday Express
A good story and it covers a huge sweep of ground.... Ponting traces its military development and influence as it spread from the Far East into the Islamic world, Europe, the Americas and finally back to China on the receiving end of the naval guns of a brutal and greedy Britain during the 19th-century Opium Wars
David Crane, Spectator
A highly readable account of gunpowder, from its origins in China about 1,200 years ago up to its most famous moment in English history
Graham Parry, Guardian
An eminently readable little history of gunpowder itself, written with customary attention to detail
Dominic Sandbrook, Evening Standard
An entertainingly educative read
A C Grayling, Financial Times
Full of surprises
Peter Lewis, Daily Mail
Ponting has managed to write a history of the entire world
The Guardian