Lawrence Public Library

Empire of guns, the violent making of the industrial revolution, Priya Satia

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 485-507) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Empire of guns

bibliography

994369598

Priya Satia

the violent making of the industrial revolution

"We have long understood the Industrial Revolution as a triumphant story of innovation and technology. [This] rich and ambitious new book by award-winning historian Priya Satia upends this conventional wisdom by placing war and Britain's prosperous gun trade at the heart of the Industrial Revolution and the state's imperial expansion. Satia brings to life this bustling industrial society with the story of a scandal: Samuel Galton of Birmingham, one of Britain's most prominent gunmakers, has been condemned by his fellow Quakers, who argue that his profession violates the society's pacifist principles. In his fervent self-defense, Galton argues that the state's heavy reliance on industry for all of its war needs means that every member of the British industrial economy is implicated in Britain's 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 nation's emergence as a global superpower, the roots of the state's role in economic development, and the origins of our era's debates about gun control and the "military-industrial complex"--That thorny partnership of government, the economy, and the military. Through Satia's 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 approach, Empire of Guns is a masterful new work of history--a rigorous historical argument with a human story at its heart."--Jacket

Part one: The industrial life of guns. The state and the gun industry, part I: 1688-1756 ; Who made guns? ; The state and the gun industry, part II: 1756-1815 ; The state, war, and industrial revolution -- Part two: The social life of guns. Interlude: A brief lesson from African history ; Guns and money ; Guns in arms, part I: Home ; Guns in arms, part II: Abroad -- Part three: The moral life of guns. Interlude: A brief account of the Society of Friends ; Galton's disownment ; The gun trade after 1815 ; Opposition to the gun trade after 1815