Military Review English Edition January-February 2015 | Page 142
and weapons serve merely as a backdrop to explain
the former through a wide survey of military history,
mostly of the Western tradition. The reader, particularly if a student of military history, must keep
this in mind while reading, as the historical assertions can be general and somewhat anecdotal. From
the onset, the author is clearly a physics professor,
ostensibly a fine one, but no historian. Despite allowing for easier understanding of difficult scientific
concepts, the folksy and conversational language sets
an unauthoritative tone. Too often, he reaches out to
less-than-august academic sources on the web such
as Wikipedia, How Stuff Works, and About.com.
When The Physics of War hits on an interesting, important, and well-explained topic, the book
soars. For instance, the author’s explanation on the
application of rifling and ballistics is fascinating.
The pieces devoted to the development of gunnery
would make any artilleryman proud. Other sections
on the long bow, radar, and atomic bomb may not be
ground breaking or revelatory, but are nevertheless
insightful. If anything, the reader gains confidence
in finding confirmation in what he or she already
knows about the world.
Despite all that is right with it, the work is often
so broad in its treatment of war’s history, from
chariot to drone, that it often suffers from a lack of
focus. The few gems in it are sparsely separated by
muddled, easily contestable topics that fall flat. The
author claims outright that the Romans had disdain
for science.
The Roman arches and aqueducts that function
after thousands of years may silently confute such
an assertion. Also, he claims that few advances in
science occurred