Records show that the Chinese invented gunpowder in the 800s.
As the book makes clear, the spread of war and its technology had devastating consequences on the political and cultural fabric.
This extraordinarily ambitious book traces the history of that invention and its impact on the surrounding Asian world - Korea, Japan, South East Asia and South Asia - from the ninth through the twentieth century.
By the 1200s they had unleashed the first weapons of war upon their unsuspecting neighbours.
Records show that the Chinese invented gunpowder in the 800s