Empire of Guns: The Violent Making of the Industrial Revolution

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2018 BY THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE AND SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINEBy a prize-winning young historian an authoritative work that reframes the Industrial Revolution the expansion of British empire and emergence of industrial capitalism by presenting them as inextricable from the gun tradeA fascinating and important glimpse into how violence fueled the industrial revolution Priya Satias book stuns with deep scholarship and sparkling prose.--Siddhartha Mukherjee Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies We have long understood the Industrial Revolution as a triumphant story of innovation and technology.Empire of Guns a rich and ambitious new book by award-winning historian Priya Satia upends this conventional wisdom by placing war and Britains prosperous gun trade at the heart of the Industrial Revolution and the states imperial expansion.Satia brings to life this bustling industrial society with the story of a scandal: Samuel Galton of Birmingham one of Britains most prominent gunmakers has been condemned by his fellow Quakers who argue that his profession violates the societys pacifist principles. In his fervent self-defense Galton argues that the states heavy reliance on industry for all of its war needs means that every member of the British industrial economy is implicated in Britains near-constant state of war.Empire of Guns uses the story of Galton and the gun trade from Birmingham to the outermost edges of the British empire to illuminate the nations emergence as a global superpower the roots of the states role in economic development and the origins of our eras debates about gun control and the military-industrial complex -- that thorny partnership of government the economy and the military. Through Satias eyes we acquire a radically new understanding of this critical historical moment and all that followed from it.Sweeping in its scope and entirely original in its approachEmpire of Guns is a masterful new work of history -- a rigorous historical argument with a human story at its heart. Review *Finalist for the 2018LA Times Book Prize in History *Winner of the PCCBS Book Prize 2018 *Shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2019 *Winner of the 2019 AHA Jerry Bentley Prize *Winner of the 2019 Wadsworth Prize for Business History *Shortlisted for the 2021 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies“Priya Satia’s books are helping us reexamine the discipline of History. . . . The sharpness of her focus on the Galtons and the astounding extent of their circle’s influence on British financial scientific and intellectual life enables her to present the argument with exceptional force and clarity. . . . Built into the foundations of History and indeed many other disciplines in the Humanities is the repression of some of the most important questions about human existence on this planet. . . . Satia’s fearlessness in tackling big questions even to the point of indicting the very discipline that has raised her to a position of not-inconsiderable eminence suggests that she might well be the historian who could summon the courage to plunge into this chasm.”-Amitav Ghosh Scroll“Satia’s detailed retelling of the Industrial Revolution and Britain’s relentless empire expansion notably contradicts simple free market narratives. . . . She argues convincingly that the expansion of the armaments industry and the government’s role in it is inseparable from the rise of innumerable associated industries from finance to mining. . . . Fascinating.” -The New York Times   “A fascinating study of the centrality of militarism in 18th-century British life and how imperial expansion and arms went hand in hand . . . This book is a triumph.” -Guardian“Satia marshals an overwhelming amount of evidence to show comprehensively that guns had a place at the center of every conventional tale histo