Intended Audience
Scholarly & Professional
LCCN
2013-370223
Reviews
Review from Dangerous Talk: "Readers will come away well informed about just how colourful the language of the English people, at their boldest and most deliberately subversive, has been over the centuries." --Anthony Fletcher, Times Literary Supplement 04/02/11, "Cressy writes in an engaging and accessible style ... If this pioneering survey of an important and neglected subject raises as many questions as it answers, it brings a mass of new information to our attention, and raises issues which future studies of early modern politics and religion willbe unable to ignore." --Bernard Capp, English Historical Review 01/02/2011, a fascinating and highly readable study of the "weird and wonderful tale of saltpeter" Highly recommended., David Cressy tells the tale of this "crucial link in the chain of chemistry and power" with panache, from the unravelling of saltpetre's chemistry to the warmongering that fostered dependence on it., Review from previous edition:.".. Readers will come away well informed about just how colourful the language of the English people, at their boldest and most deliberately subversive, has been over the centuries." --Anthony Fletcher, Times Literary Supplement 04/02/11, A brief but fascinating history of saltpetre ... [Cressy] has skilfully turned 200 pages on the collection of human and animal waste into a fascinating reflection on how civic liberties were often quashed by concerns for national security., "[Cressy's] meticulous research into unruly tongues touches upon village scandal, bawdy gossip and rumours, with colourful cases ranging from cursing in a Cheshire village to a row between Cambridge academics." --Jenny Uglow, Financial Times 18/01/10, "A splendid catalogue of outspokenness ... this engaging book opens a window into the social history of pre-modern politics." --John Spurr, BBC History March 2010, "Scholarly in nature and light in tone, Dangerous Talk is an intriguing glimpse into the private thoughts and public punishment of neighbors in pre-modern England." --Lauren Puzier, Marie Antoinette's Gossip Guide to the 18th Century, a very well structured and organised book Cressy has made a significant contribution to the existing literature a book which is essential reading for historians of the early modern period., "An important and convincing story, and David Cressy makes many useful reflections along the way upon the nature of early modern popular culture. In all respects this is another solid achievement from a reliably good historian." --Ronald Hutton, History, 'Review from previous edition ... Readers will come away well informed about just how colourful the language of the English people, at their boldest and most deliberately subversive, has been over the centuries.'Anthony Fletcher, Times Literary Supplement'Cressy writes in an engaging and accessible style ... If this pioneering survey of an important and neglected subject raises as many questions as it answers, it brings a mass of new information to our attention, and raises issues which future studies of early modern politics and religion will be unable to ignore.'Bernard Capp, English Historical Review'A splendid catalogue of outspokenness ... this engaging book opens a window into the social history of pre-modern politics.'John Spurr, BBC History'[Cressy's] meticulous research into unruly tongues touches upon village scandal, bawdy gossip and rumours, with colourful cases ranging from cursing in a Cheshire village to a row between Cambridge academics.'Jenny Uglow, Financial Times'Scholarly in nature and light in tone, Dangerous Talk is an intriguing glimpse into the private thoughts and public punishment of neighbors in pre-modern England.'Lauren Puzier, Marie Antoinette's Gossip Guide to the 18th Century'An important and convincing story, and David Cressy makes many useful reflections along the way upon the nature of early modern popular culture. In all respects this is another solid achievement from a reliably good historian.'Ronald Hutton, History
Dewey Edition
23
Illustrated
Yes
Dewey Decimal
549.732
Table Of Content
PrefaceIntroduction1. Mysterious Saltpeter2. The Gunpowder Kingship of Henry VIII3. The Elizabethan Quest for Infinity Security4. Saltpeter for a Peaceable Kingdom5. The Inestimable Treasure of Charles I6. Saltpeter Revolution7. Saltpeter for a Global Empire8. The New World and the Ancien RegimeConclusionBibliographyIndex
Synopsis
This is the story of saltpeter, the vital but mysterious substance craved by governments from the Tudors to the Victorians as an 'inestimable treasure.' National security depended on control of this organic material - that had both mystical and mineral properties. Derived from soil enriched with dung and urine, it provided the heart or 'mother' of gunpowder, without which no musket or cannon could be fired. Its acquisition involved alchemical knowledge, exotic technology, intrusions into people's lives, and eventual dominance of the world's oceans. The quest for saltpeter caused widespread 'vexation' in Tudor and Stuart England, as crown agents dug in homes and barns and even churches. Governments hungry for it purchased supplies from overseas merchants, transferred skills from foreign experts, and extended patronage to ingenious schemers, while the hated 'saltpetermen' intruded on private ground. Eventually, huge saltpeter imports from India relieved this social pressure, and by the eighteenth century positioned Britain as a global imperial power; the governments of revolutionary America and ancien regime France, on the other hand, were forced to find alternative sources of this treasured substance. In the end, it was only with the development of chemical explosives in the late Victorian period that dependency on saltpeter finally declined. Saltpeter, the Mother of Gunpowder tells this fascinating story for the first time. Lively and entertaining in its own right, it is also a tale with far-reaching implications. As David Cressy's engaging narrative makes clear, the story of saltpeter is vital not only in explaining the inter-connected military, scientific, and political 'revolutions' of the seventeenth century; it also played a key role in the formation of the centralized British nation state - and that state's subsequent dominance of the waves in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries., This is the story of saltpeter, the vital but mysterious substance craved by governments from the Tudors to the Victorians as an 'inestimable treasure.' National security depended on control of this organic material - that had both mystical and mineral properties. Derived from soil enriched with dung and urine, it provided the heart or 'mother' of gunpowder, without which no musket or cannon could be fired. Its acquisition involved alchemicalknowledge, exotic technology, intrusions into people's lives, and eventual dominance of the world's oceans. The quest for saltpeter caused widespread 'vexation' in Tudor and StuartEngland, as crown agents dug in homes and barns and even churches. Governments hungry for it purchased supplies from overseas merchants, transferred skills from foreign experts, and extended patronage to ingenious schemers, while the hated 'saltpetermen' intruded on private ground. Eventually, huge saltpeter imports from India relieved this social pressure, and by the eighteenth century positioned Britain as a global imperial power; the governments of revolutionary Americaand ancien régime France, on the other hand, were forced to find alternative sources of this treasured substance. In the end, it was only with the development of chemical explosives in the lateVictorian period that dependency on saltpeter finally declined. Saltpeter, the Mother of Gunpowder tells this fascinating story for the first time. Lively and entertaining in its own right, it is also a tale with far-reaching implications. As David Cressy's engaging narrative makes clear, the story of saltpeter is vital not only in explaining the inter-connected military, scientific, and political 'revolutions' of the seventeenth century; it also played a key rolein the formation of the centralized British nation state - and that state's subsequent dominance of the waves in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries., The story of the science, the technology, the politics and the military applications of saltpeter - the vital but mysterious substance that governments from the Tudors to the Victorians regarded as an "inestimable treasure."
LC Classification Number
TP238
