Books by Peter A. (Vanderbilt University Lorge

In the global world of the twenty-first century, martial arts are practised for self-defense and sporting purposes only. However, for thousands of years, they were a central feature of military practice in China. This book charts the history of combat in China from the Bronze Age to the present.

This extraordinarily ambitious book traces the history of the invention of gunpowder by the Chinese in the 800s, and its impact on the surrounding Asian world from the ninth through the twentieth century. It is packed with information about military strategy, interregional warfare and the development of armaments.