This book is written in such transparent language - which took considerable effort to preserve when translating into Russian - that William McNeil's fundamental research could easily be considered a popular bestseller. Moreover, we are talking here about one of the archetypal subjects of commercial book popularization - the history of the invention of all kinds of “purely masculine” deadly pieces of iron such as crossbows, muskets, halberds, cannons, mitrailleuses, torpedoes and other sometimes deceitful “spin-wheel units”. In essence, that's how it is. This book, among its other worthy qualities, is also a bestseller, which for more than twenty-five years since its first publication has remained on the list of best-selling books of the reputable University of Chicago Press.