A tale of two suits of armor -- Of Hussites and haystacks, of questions and cannons -- Textbook war : the genealogy of Kriegsbücher -- Gunpowder dilemmas and loaded peace in Fronsperger's Kriegsbuch -- Depicting gunpowder in German military broadsheets (1630-32) -- Gustav Adolf's gunpowder demise -- The aesthetics of gunpowder in seventeenth-century German war novels -- Cavalier endings in Happel's Der insulanische Mandorell (1682).
Summary:
"Guns have been linked with masculinity in the European imagination since their earliest days. Focused on early modern German texts, including military manuals, poems, novels, and broadsheets, this book traces the cultural history of gunpowder in German-speaking lands from the Hussite Wars to the Thirty Years War. As the destructive capacity and military tactical value of gunpowder became more evident to European peoples over time, writers--especially German ones--expressed increasing anxiety about their disruptive potential for ideals of warrior masculinity, martial ethics, and the aesthetic foundations of war stories"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.