| Forts: An Illustrated History of Building for Defence Contributor(s): The National Archives (Author), Black, Jeremy (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 1472827635 ISBN-13: 9781472827630 Publisher: Osprey Publishing (UK) OUR PRICE: $45.00 Product Type: Hardcover Published: September 2018 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Military - Pictorial - History | Military - Strategy - Architecture | History - General |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 11.3" W x 11.25" (3.60 lbs) 224 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Ever since humans began to live together in settlements they have felt the need to organize some kind of defense against potentially hostile neighbors. Many of the earliest city states were built as walled towns, and during the medieval era, stone castles were built both as symbols of the defenders' strength and as protection against potential attack. The advent of cannon prompted fortifications to become lower, denser, and more complex, and the forts of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries could appear like snowflakes in their complexity and beautiful geometry. Without forts, the history of America could have taken a very different course, pirates could have sailed the seas unchecked, and Britain itself could have been successfully invaded. This book explains the history of human fortifications, and is beautifully illustrated using photographs, plans, drawings, and maps to explain why they were built, their various functions, and their immense historical legacy in laying the foundations of empire. |
Contributor Bio(s): Black, Jeremy: - Jeremy Black is Professor of History at the University of Exeter and a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, USA. |