SALTPETER: THE MOTHER OF GUNPOWDER: SECURITY, SCIENCE, AND VEXATION, 1500 - 1800

Book ID/图书代码： 00200011B49071

English Summary/英文概要： SALTPETER: The Mother of Gunpowder: Security, Science, and Vexation, 1500-1800 – The quest for saltpeter caused widespread vexation in Tudor and Stuart England, as crown agents dug in homes and barns and even churches. The saltpeter enterprise tested royal authority against individual rights and hastened the formation of a centralized state.

Governments hungry for saltpeter purchased supplies from overseas merchants, transferred skills from foreign experts, and extended patronage to ingenious schemers, while the hated saltpetermen intruded on private ground. National security depended on control of this organic material that seemed to have mystical as well as mineral properties.

This lively and original study explores connections between the ‘military revolution,’ the ‘scientific revolution,’ and the revolutions of the Stuart realms. David Cressy examines the science, technology, politics and military applications of saltpeter, the vital but mysterious substance that governments from the Tudor to the Victorian regarded as an ‘inestimable treasure.’ Its acquisition involved alchemical knowledge, exotic technology, intrusions into people’s lives, and eventual dominance of the world’s oceans.

This fascinating book illustrates how a substance derived from soil established Britain as a global imperial power by the eighteenth century.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 《硝酸钾：集安全、科学和烦恼为一体的火药之母，1500-1800》---都铎和斯图亚特王朝对硝酸钾钟爱，使得皇室代理人在百姓住所、谷仓畜棚甚至教堂里挖掘硝酸钾，这引起了大范围的混乱和焦虑。硝酸钾企业用个人权利挑战着皇家权威，加速了一个中央集权国家的形成。

政府对硝酸钾的极度需求使得令人厌恶的硝酸钾侵入私人土地，海外商人大量涌进，国外先进技术被引进，来自独具匠心的策划家的赞助也增多。国家安全依靠着这一似乎有着神奇的矿物性质的有机物。

这一栩栩如生的研究首次探究了“军事革命”、“科技革命”及斯图亚特王朝内部革命的联系。大卫•克雷西研究了对硝酸钾---这一从都铎到斯图亚特王朝时期就一直被当做是举足轻重而又神秘莫测的“不可估量的珍品”---的科学、技术、政治和军事应用。硝酸钾的应用领域涉及炼金术、奇异技术，并渗透到人们生活中，最后还在世界海洋里纵横捭阖。

这本引人入胜的书向我们阐述了硝酸钾是如何从那块令英国在十八世纪享誉全球的土地里诞生的。(兼职翻译-XMM)

Awards/获奖情况：

About the Author/作者介绍： 大卫•克雷西1946年4月4日出生在英国米德尔赛克斯市艾尔沃斯郡；1957年到1963年在哈默史密斯的拉提默中学学习，1963年至1970年受教于剑桥克莱尔学院。他在美国度过了他职业生涯的大部分时间。现在，大卫是俄亥俄州立大学英国历史研究乔治三世的教授及人文历史学特聘教授，与此同时，他在圣凯瑟琳莫德林学院、牛津众灵学院、克莱尔默学院及剑桥丘吉尔学院享有客座研究员资格。1966年他与瓦莱丽•克莱西成婚，育有两子，均已成年。

David Cressy was born at Isleworth, Middlesex, 4 April 1946; educated at Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith, 1957-1963, and Clare College, Cambridge, 1963-1970; and has spent most of his career in the United States. Currently George III Professor of British History and Humanities Distinguished Professor of History at the Ohio State University, he has held visiting fellowships at Magdalen, St. Catherine’s, and All Souls College, Oxford, and Clare Hall and Churchill College, Cambridge. He is married to Valerie Cressy, since 1966, and has two grown sons.

Format:电子手稿

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE(到期可授)

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

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