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Article ID: CBB642902232

Catapults Still Aren’t Atomic Bombs: Effectiveness and Determinism in Premodern Military Technology (December 2019)

DeVries, Kelly R. (Author)

Vulcan
Volume: 7
Issue: 1
Pages: 34-44
Publication date: December 2019
Language: English

ISSN: 2213-459X; 2213-4603

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/22134603-00701004

Publication Date: December 2019
Edition Details: Special issue on technological determinism and war.

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In 1997 War and History published my article, “Catapults Are Not Atomic Bombs: Towards a Redefinition of ‘Effectiveness’ in Premodern Military Technology.” The title was hyperbolic as the article discussed neither catapults nor atomic bombs, but that hyperbole was to serve a purpose: to have military historians, primarily historians of military technology rethink their notions of military technological determinism, especially in interpreting premodern military history. In that article I used three examples: the chariot, the longbow, and gunpowder weaponry, suggesting that the use of these technologies by modern historians as determining catastrophe, invincibility, and revolution, respectively, was overstating their effects on history. After 22 years I was asked to revisit my original thoughts and here use the various chroniclers’ descriptions at the battle of Crécy (1346) and the function of the English longbows (and longbowmen) to explore how the premodern world thought about technology in war. Ultimately, I reaffirm the importance of humans over technology in any military situation, even if the technologies are either characteristic or central to any particular engagement.

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Includes Series Articles

Article Brown, Gates M. (December 2019) Technology’s Unrealistic Promise: The US Army in the 1950s and Technological Determinism. Vulcan (pp. 62-80). unapi

Included in

Article Goodman, Seymour E. (December 2019) Deploying Technological Innovation in “Real Time”: Union and Confederate Ironclads. Vulcan (pp. 81-110). unapi

Article Roland, Alex (December 2019) Is Military Technology Deterministic?. Vulcan (pp. 19-33). unapi

Article Zimmerman, David (December 2019) Neither Catapults nor Atomic Bombs: Technological Determinism and Military History from a Post-Industrial Revolution Perspective. Vulcan (pp. 45-61). unapi

Article Walton, Steven A. (December 2019) Technological Determinism(s) and the Study of War. Vulcan (pp. 4-18). unapi

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