That war advances technological progress is a cliché; proving that this accelerated process can benefit humanity is a very different matter. True, World War II gave us nuclear power and antibiotics; but what else has war contributed, apart from periodic cullings of the population?

It's this theme that Perth-domiciled British writer Michael White explores in this, his 22nd book, dividing his subject matter under seven subheads such as medicine, transportation, codes and ciphers, and communications.

The author makes good use of fertile ground, and many chapters are crammed with the kind of anecdotes that transform written history from merely absorbing to thoroughly entertaining.

Here, for example, is an outline of Indian reconstructive surgery, a technique dating from 800 BC, and the reasons for its evolution. Similarly, we learn why pacificist Alfred Nobel did so much work on modern explosives, and how the American system of manufacture revolutionised industry.

The real strength of this invaluable volume is the author's skill in distilling the essentials from complex episodes and presenting a balanced précis that could stimulate the reader into seeking further details. So, for example, the story of penicillin is not the story of Alexander Fleming but that of Fleming, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain; and the advances of the space race are credited not merely to Wernher von Braun, but to Sergei Korolev and others; and while Florence Nightingale was lifting standards of hygiene in British medicine, Clara Barton and Dorothea Dix were doing the same in the United States.

White's book is a real page-turner and, as such, something of a rarity among science books.