EAN 9781848871731

Engines of War tells the dramatic story of how the railways revolutionized the nature of warfare, ushering in an age of industrialized conflict in which wars were fought on a previously unimaginable scale. From the moment of its first appearance, the 'iron road' not only rendered armies more mobile, but also massively increased the power and the deadliness of the weaponry available to them. Christian Wolmar's epic account - of how an invention that brought prosperity in peace-time metamorphosed in time of war into a weapon of death - is counterpointed by a wealth of human stories of personal endeavour and private tragedy.