It All Started With Stones and Clubs

by Richard Armour

Genres: History, Humor, Nonfiction, Military History

Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Richard Armour, a college professor of English who specialized in Chaucer and the English Romantic poets, was best known as a prolific author of light verse and wacky parodies of academic scholarship. He was a professor of English at Scripps College in Claremont from 1945 to 1966.

Armour was raised in Pomona, California, where his father owned a drugstore. He graduated from Pomona College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, then obtained his master's and Ph.D. in English literature at Harvard. He was a Harvard research fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum library in London.

Reviews

[Moonkiszt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like the violence of today. . . take a step back with Richard Armour. He's not grounded in the political correctness of our day - he's wrapped in his own time - but I'm sure he'd approve of how far we've come if he's paying any attention from wherever he is. . . .

[Pica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Armour is one of the great unsung heroes of humorous writing. He published nearly 60 books between 1935 and 1983, but has since fallen out of public recognition. This is a real shame. This book, which is an overview of the history of warfare, is a real gem of humorous writing. Primitive man, he begins by telling us, "was too uncivilized and unimaginative to wage war. All he did was eat and sleep and try to keep warm. He also reproduced, though he did not know this was what he was doing when he did it." He ends the book by saying, "war is no longer called war but 'police action,' 'peace-keeping,' 'rebellion,' or 'putting down rebellion,'" and this statement still rings true even though this book was published more than 40 years ago. This book is by no means comprehensive in its coverage of the subject, being only 143 pages, but one might find it difficult to fault his historical facts, and his wit is always spot-on. Not only did I enjoy reading this book, but I feel like I learned a thing or two.

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

In conclusion: You always want to be on the side storming down from the North.

[Judith Gunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another in his line of amusing history books, this one concerning weapons (yes, you can make that amusing, if you are Richard Armour).One of the appeals of these books is that they are highly literate and require you to know something about the subject. Great fun.

[Redbeard5598 · Rating 4 out of 5]

An irreverent and often humorous retelling of the history of weapons and warfare. An amusing read.