The Heirs Of Archimedes ─ Science And The Art Of War Through The Age Of Enlightenment

The integration of scientific knowledge and military power began long before theManhattan Project. In the third century BC, Archimedes was renowned for his research in mechanicsand mathematics as well as for his design and coordination of defensive siegecraft for Syracuseduring the Second Punic War. This collection of essays examines the emergence during the earlymodern era of mathematicians, chemists, and natural philosophers who, along with military engineers,navigators, and artillery officers, followed in the footsteps of Archimedes and synthesizedscientific theory and military practice. It is the first collaborative scholarly assessment of theseearly military-scientific relationships, which have been long neglected by scholars both in thehistory of science and technology and in military history.From a historical perspective, this volumeinvestigates the deep connections between two central manifestations of Western power, examining themilitary context of the Scientific Revolution and the scientific context of the Military Revolution.Unlike the classic narratives of the Scientific Revolution that focus on the theories of, andconflicts between, Aristotelian and Platonic worldviews, this volume highlights the emergence of theArchimedean ideal--in which a symbiosis exists between the supply of mechanistic science and thedemand for military capability.From a security-studies perspective, this work presents an in-depthstudy of the central components of military power as well as their dynamic interactions in thepolitical, acquisitional, operational, and tactical domains. The essays in this volume reveal theintellectual and cultural struggles to enhance the capabilities of these components--an exercise intransforming military power that remains relevant for today's armed forces.The volume sets the stageby examining the innovation of gunpowder weaponry in both the Christian and the Islamic states ofthe late medieval and Renaissance eras. It then explores such topics as the cultural resistance toscientific techniques and the relationship between early modern science and navalpower--particularly the intersecting developments in mathematics and oceanic navigation. Otheressays address the efforts of early practitioners and theorists of chemistry to increase the powerand consistency of gunpowder. The final essays analyze the application of advanced scientificknowledge and Enlightenment ideals to the military engineering and artillery organizations of theeighteenth century. The volume concludes by noting the global spread of the Archimedean ideal duringthe nineteenth century as an essential means for resisting Western imperialism.

Toby Schonfeld, PhD, is Assistant Professor, Section on Humanities and Law, Department of Preventive and Societal Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center. Her dissertation was titled "Technology and Tradition: Jewish Bioethics in the Age of Genetics." Naomi Seiler, JD, is a Greenwall Fellow in Bioethics and Health Policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She has written about abstinence education and sterilization policies in Costa Rica.