Polemology Positions
John Fowke Studies
The Gunpowder Reason, A Plot
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The Gunpowder Reason, A Plot

Reassessing the English Civil Wars as materialschlacht

This is a podcast version of the original term paper that started me down the John Fowke rabbit hole. I was curious to understand why the British “military historians” dominating the previous generation of English-language historiography were so dismissive about the artillery branch in this conflict even though the Battle of Edgehill began and ended with cannon fire. So I wrote a material history of the English Civil War — the “gunpowder reason.” Stephen Bull’s The Furie of the Ordnance was particularly helpful in this regard. The war of 1642-1645 was not some bizarre outlier from the early modern military revolution in Europe that historians debate. The same things were going on there that were going on everywhere else.

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During my follow-on research into the material victory of Parliament, the name John Fowke kept appearing in the historiography of revolutionary London. Then, as I began to read the official records of the East India Company, I discovered that Fowke had interests in the gunpowder trade decades before the war. He is not as well-known as his contemporary Wallenstein, but Fowke’s career in treason and gunpowder was at least as colorful — and ultimately, far more successful.

Apologies for the audio quality, as my production equipment was rudimentary. This paper on the Company’s lawsuit against Fowke unlocks for free subscribers tomorrow. I am presenting it this weekend at the Ohio Valley History Conference; normal publishing will resume next week.


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