The history of weaponry is essentially the history of human ingenuity

A History of the World in 100 Weapons. Chris McNabOsprey, €28; EBook: unavailable.

ABOUT 10 pages into A History of the World in 100 Weapons, two thoughts will occur to you.

The first is that human beings are ingenious. We have evolved an intelligence that has allowed us to conquer a planet; from the deepest ocean trench to its highest peak. We have ventured into outer space and ambled across the dust on another world. We have also made massive advances in mastering inner space, producing medicines and pioneering surgical procedures to mend flesh and bone, often carried out with vast distances between surgeon and patient.