Detonation: Explosives, Nitrates, and the Making of the Modern World (Cape Books)

A history of explosives, but also a history of human nature full of contradictions and struggles, selected books from Scientific American Book Club and History Book Club. At the beginning of civilization, humans have been eager to harness the destructive power of fire, but it was not until the 1860s that humans truly entered the age of explosives. Alfred Nobel relied on his extraordinary intuition to bring about earth-shaking changes to the world through the development of dynamite. Explosives have made many large-scale projects that have changed the face of the earth a reality. They have also caused a large number of casualties and caused immeasurable and irreparable damage to the environment. In this social upheaval, Nobel became one of the richest men, but all this made him uneasy. In the end, he used all his wealth to establish the famous award named after himself-the Nobel Prize. With the sharp rise in explosive consumption, countries around the world have launched fierce competition around the scarce natural resource of saltpeter. It can be said that the value of saltpeter in the 19th century is no less than that of oil in the 21st century. Both are the underlying causes of international competition and power struggles. In order to get rid of the constraints of resources, German scientist Fritz Haber solved the technical problem of artificial nitrogen fixation. This breakthrough became the basis for the Green Revolution, which allowed the population to grow dramatically. Haber also developed poison gas during the war and is considered the father of gas warfare. For this reason, when he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the international community expressed strong indignation and condemnation. This book tells a story about human beings, including their obsession with science, their trampling on morality, and the inherent irony of history. This story proves that humans can burst into amazing creativity during war, and it also reminds us that history is cyclical, and past solutions often create new problems that need to be solved.