Below is a list of unassigned topics, followed by a response sheet that you can complete, cut, and paste into an e-mailed reply. The primary focus of Weapons and Warfare will be on the historic development of weapons technology and military strategies, not on a chronological rehearsals of events per se. Hence, essays on particular eras or events are intended to function as springboards to describe the military weaponry, technologies, and strategies now considered to have been innovated during the era in question. Clearly, those topics on weapons themselves (e.g., Bows and Arrows) are meant to be descriptive surveys of those weapons and their development and uses.

Salem has enlisted the expertise of Professor John Powell, of the Department of History and Political Science, Cumberland College, Williamsburg, Kentucky, as the set’s consulting editor and the author of its table of contents. He has identified approximately 100 topics for coverage. The topics will be arranged thematically, in chapters, with volume 1, Ancient and Medieval, covering weapons and strategies from ancient times to 1500, and volume 2, The Modern Era, covering weapons and strategies from approximately 1500 to the present. Each essay ranges from 2000 words to 7000 words. I can easily e-mail you the full set of contents if you are interested in seeing how any of the unassigned essays fits into the work as a whole.

Compensation (fee structure) is listed at the top of the unassigned topics list below. All writers will also receive a byline, both in a list of contributors in volume 1 and at the end of the essay, as well as offprints of the published essay.

Explicit coverage notes for each topic, along with contracts, will be mailed when assignments are made. Work is done for hire, and the deadline is pretty hard and fast--January 26 really is our wall if all the editors here at Salem are not to work weekends finishing the copy editing, indexing, and illustration.

We urge you to consider this list and respond soon; our final deadline falls at the end of January. Thank you for your consideration.

WEAPONS AND WARFARE, forthcoming reference work from Salem Pres Unassigned Essays as of 11/13/00

VOLUME 1 (ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL) UNASSIGNED TOPICS
*Picks, Axes, and War-Hammers (ancient to 1500 c.e.) (2000 wds)
*Primitive Warfare (warfare prior to metallurgy, using bone, stone, wood; five sectons: Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, Australasia and Pacific Islands) (4000 wds)
*Ways of War in Eastern and Southern Asia: China (16th cent. b.c.e. 500 c.e.) (4000 wds)
*Ways of War in Eastern and Southern Asia: India/South Asia (16th cent. b.c.e.-500 c.e.) (3000 wds)
*Ways of War in the Middle East and Africa: Islamic Armies (622-1453 c.e.) (8000 wds)
*Ways of War in the Middle East and Africa: Ethiopia (320-1500) (2000 wds)
*Ways of War in Eastern and Southern Asia: China (581-1644) (4000 wds)
*Ways of War in Eastern and Southern Asia: India/South Asia (500-1526)(3000 wds)
*Ways of War in Eastern and Southern Asia: Southeast Asia (500-1500) (3000 wds)

VOLUME 2 (1500-Present) UNASSIGNED TOPICS
*Warfare in Persia: 1500-1922 (2000 wds)
*Warfare of African Empires: 1500-1935 (5000 wds)
*Japanese Warfare, 1603-1930 (2000 wds)
*Modern Armies and Infantry (2000 wds: will consider greater length)
*Ways of War in the Americas: North American Indigenous Nations (700-1500) (3000 wds)

Appendices
*Time Line (length and fee to be determined by Salem's editor with contributor; to cover weapons development from ancient times to present)