Bertram Hopkinson was prescient in writing of the importance of better measuring, albeit better understanding, the nature of high rate deformation of materials in general and, in particular, of the importance of heat in initiating detonation of explosives. This report deals with these subjects in terms of post-Hopkinson crystal dislocation mechanics applied to high rate deformations, including impact tests, Hopkinson pressure bar results, Zerilli–Armstrong-type constitutive relations, shock-induced deformations, isentropic compression experiments, mechanical initiation of explosive crystals and shear banding in metals.