A more social history of rockets.
In this book the author examines the history of rockets from early times concentrating more on the developments of the Chinese, the Mongols and the British - through the work of Cngreve. The more recent and familiar work of Goddard and von Braun, the V1 and V2 saga, are also discussed but to a lesser degree. The author's theme concerns the usefulness of rocket propulsion on the battlefield as compared to cannon and looks at this aspect in a historical context and with regard to the main characters involved: as mentioned above. A review of some of more recent developments, such as the Mars investigations, is also included as a final chapter to the book. The historical references indicate the depth of investigation by the author and the comparison with science fiction developments, over the historic period reviewed, is also interesting.
