The Firearm Revolution: From Renaissance Italy to the European Empires, by Catherine Fletcher, Princeton University Press, 352 pages, $35
The introduction of firearms was as important as that of the printing press. Or so argues the author of The Firearm Revolution, a fascinating book on the social impact of guns in Europe. Firearms empowered relatively untrained commoners to challenge aristocrats who'd spent their lives mastering expensive arms and armor. Guns enriched skilled artisans, leveled the playing field between the weak and the strong, and disrupted the established order. In the process, they sparked modern-sounding debates over whether the government could effectively regulate such weapons.
