Empire of Guns: The Violent Making of the Industrial Revolution

by Priya Satia

Overview

A rich and ambitious history reframing the Industrial Revolution, the expansion of the British empire, and the emergence of industrial capitalism as inextricable from the gun trade.

From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, the industrial revolution transformed Britain from an agricultural and artisanal economy to one dominated by industry, ushering in unprecedented growth in technology and trade and putting the country at the center of the global economy. But the commonly accepted story of the industrial revolution, anchored in images of cotton factories and steam engines invented by unfettered geniuses, overlooks the true root of economic and industrial expansion: the lucrative military contracting that enabled the country's near-constant state of war in the eighteenth century. Demand for the guns and other war materiel that allowed British armies, navies, mercenaries, traders, settlers, and adventurers to conquer an immense share of the globe in turn drove the rise of innumerable associated industries, from metalworking to banking.

Bookended by the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, this book traces the social and material life of British guns over a century of near-constant war and violence at home and abroad. Priya Satia develops this story through the life of prominent British gun-maker and Quaker Samuel Galton Jr., who was asked to answer for the moral defensibility of producing guns as new uses like anonymous mass violence rose. Reconciling the pacifist tenet of his faith with his perception of the economic realities of the time, Galton argued that war was driving the industrial economy, making everyone inescapably complicit in it. Through his story, Satia illuminates Britain's emergence as a global superpower, the roots of the government's role in economic development, and the origins of our own era's debates over gun control and military contracting.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781503610484
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	10/29/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	538,813
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Priya Satia is the Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History and Professor of British History at Stanford University. She is the author of Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East (2009), and her writing has appeared in Slate, the Financial Times, the Nation, and the Huffington Post, among other publications.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Introduction 1

Part 1 The Industrial Life of Guns

1 The State and the Gun Industry, Part 1: 1688-1756 25

2 Who Made Guns? 66

3 The State and the Gun Industry, Part 2: 1756-1815 101

4 The State, War, and Industrial Revolution 146

Part 2 The Social Life of Guns

Interlude: A Brief Lesson from African History 183

5 Guns and Money 191

6 Guns in Arms, Part 1: Home 219

7 Guns in Arms, Part 2: Abroad 261

Part 3 The Moral Life of Guns

Interlude: A Brief Account of the Society of Friends 303

8 Galton's Disownment 316

9 The Gun Trade after 1815 345

10 Opposition to the Gun Trade after 1815 380

Acknowledgments 411

Notes 417

Bibliography 485

Index 511

Editorial Reviews

"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 historians have so far told about the origins of the modern, industrialized world. . . . Though not presented as a political book, the implications of Satia's work are difficult to ignore."—The New Republic

"Sweeping and stimulating....An extensively researched and carefully crafted narrative. . . . This important book helps us to look at British and United States history in an unconventional way and makes for great reading."—BookPage

"A solid contribution to the history of technology and commerce, with broad implications for the present."—Kirkus

"Empire of Guns offers a sweeping revision of the history of the origins of the industrial revolution and the nature of capitalism itself."—Public Books

"A fascinating and important glimpse into how violence fueled the industrial revolution, Priya Satia's book stuns with deep scholarship and sparkling prose."—Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies

"Empire of Guns is a richly researched and probing historical narrative that challenges our understanding of the engines that drove Britain's industrial revolution. With this book, Priya Satia introduces Samuel Galton and the economies of guns and war into the historical equation and, with it, affirms her place as a deeply captivating and thought-provoking historian."—Caroline Elkins, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Imperial Reckoning

"Empire of Guns is an important revisionist account of the industrial revolution, reminding us that the making of the modern state and the making of modern capitalism were tightly intertwined. A revelatory book."—Sven Beckert, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Empire of Cotton

"Empire of Guns boldly uncovers a history of modern violence and its central role in political, economic, and technological progress. As unsettling as it is bracing, it radically deepens our understanding of the 'iron cage' of modernity."—Pankaj Mishra, author of Age of Anger

"A strong narrative bolstered by excellent archival research. . . . Tremendous scholarship. . . . Satia's detailed and fresh look at the Industrial Revolution has appeal and relevance grounded in and reaching beyond history and social science to illuminate the complexity of present-day gun-control debates."—Booklist

"Satia moves confidently back and forth between economic and cultural history and writes with equal confidence about several continents...Satia engages social-scientific theory successfully, marshaling a broad range of evidence to challenge conventional thinking."––William K. Storey, Technology and Culture

"Satia does not displace the well-grounded depiction of industrialization based in textiles and railroads; rather, she convincingly supplements it, demonstrating the equal significance of the heretofore overlooked role of the military requirements of empire. This book, written in sparkling prose, is a potentially paradigm-changing work. Highly recommended."—R. Spickerman, CHOICE

"It is impossible to do justice to such a comprehensive and thought-provoking book that will appeal to general readers and scholars alike. . . . The influence of Empire of Guns on the scholarship of industrialization is sure to rival that of the firearms' on global capitalism."—Lindsay Schakenbach Regele, Business History Review

"Empire of Guns is an important book with a compelling thesis about the warfare state's role in prompting the Industrial Revolution....[A] first-rate study that deserves a wide readership."—Merritt Roe Smith, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History

From the Publisher

"Empire of Guns is an important book with a compelling thesis about the warfare state's role in prompting the Industrial Revolution....[A] first-rate study that deserves a wide readership."

The Journal of Interdisciplinary History - Merritt Roe Smith

"Empire of Guns offers a sweeping revision of the history of the origins of the industrial revolution and the nature of capitalism itself."

Public Books

"A strong narrative bolstered by excellent archival research. . . . Tremendous scholarship. . . . Satia's detailed and fresh look at the Industrial Revolution has appeal and relevance grounded in and reaching beyond history and social science to illuminate the complexity of present-day gun-control debates."

Booklist

"Sweeping and stimulating....An extensively researched and carefully crafted narrative. . . . This important book helps us to look at British and United States history in an unconventional way and makes for great reading."

BookPage

"Empire of Guns is an important revisionist account of the industrial revolution, reminding us that the making of the modern state and the making of modern capitalism were tightly intertwined. A revelatory book."

finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Empire of Cotton - Sven Beckert

"Empire of Guns boldly uncovers a history of modern violence and its central role in political, economic, and technological progress. As unsettling as it is bracing, it radically deepens our understanding of the 'iron cage' of modernity."

author of Age of Anger - Pankaj Mishra

"Satia does not displace the well-grounded depiction of industrialization based in textiles and railroads; rather, she convincingly supplements it, demonstrating the equal significance of the heretofore overlooked role of the military requirements of empire. This book, written in sparkling prose, is a potentially paradigm-changing work. Highly recommended."

CHOICE - R. Spickerman

"Satia marshals an overwhelming amount of evidence to show, comprehensively, that guns had a place at the center of every conventional tale historians have so far told about the origins of the modern, industrialized world. . . . Though not presented as a political book, the implications of Satia's work are difficult to ignore."

The New Republic

"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

"A fascinating and important glimpse into how violence fueled the industrial revolution, Priya Satia's book stuns with deep scholarship and sparkling prose."

Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies - Siddhartha Mukherjee

"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

"Empire of Guns is a richly researched and probing historical narrative that challenges our understanding of the engines that drove Britain's industrial revolution. With this book, Priya Satia introduces Samuel Galton and the economies of guns and war into the historical equation and, with it, affirms her place as a deeply captivating and thought-provoking historian."

winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Imperial Reckoning - Caroline Elkins

"It is impossible to do justice to such a comprehensive and thought-provoking book that will appeal to general readers and scholars alike. . . . The influence of Empire of Guns on the scholarship of industrialization is sure to rival that of the firearms' on global capitalism."

Business History Review - Lindsay Schakenbach Regele

"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 strong narrative bolstered by excellent archival research. . . . Tremendous scholarship. . . . Satia's detailed and fresh look at the Industrial Revolution has appeal and relevance grounded in and reaching beyond history and social science to illuminate the complexity of present-day gun-control debates."

Booklist

02/05/2018
Stanford history professor Satia (Spies in Arabia) hastily probes the relationship between war and industrialization in 18th-century Britain using the story of Samuel Galton Jr., a prominent Birmingham gun manufacturer. In 1795, Galton was accused by his fellow Quakers of promoting an immoral trade in the manufacturing of guns. In response, Galton claimed that gun-making could not be isolated from the British industrial economy of the time—which had grown out of Britain’s nearly continuous state of war over the past century. Satia uses Galton’s defense as a window into the central role of the arms industry in precipitating the Industrial Revolution. She goes on to argue that indeed it was changes in the nature of violence and the social role of guns in the age of British imperialism that provided the impetus for state-driven industrialization. Yet she provides little evidence for her sweeping claims, failing to address the fact that perpetual warfare was a reality for all European states during the era, not just Britain, and paying scant attention to shifts in agricultural production and demography that were critical to industrial takeoff. Nor does she engage with scholars who argue that the state served as a barrier, rather than an impetus, to industrialization. This book eschews the big picture for a series of stylized historical set pieces. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

2018-02-06
Mr. Owen, meet Mr. Colt: a wide-ranging if overlong history of the role of arms manufacturing in the Industrial Revolution.The rise of mechanized industry in Britain, writes Satia (History/Stanford Univ.; Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East, 2009), corresponded to a period of "more or less constant war." There was always France to fight, of course, but also the rebellious American Colonies and uprisings elsewhere in the empire, and the Dutch and the Spanish. An economy flourished, therefore, in the manufacture and sale of armaments and other military provisions. One of Satia's perhaps unlikely case studies is Samuel Galton, a nominally good Quaker who managed to reconcile that belief system with making a fortune in weaponry. Then as now, the arms merchants were not especially particular about where their products wound up. As Satia observes, in the 18th century alone, millions of guns sprang forth from workshops and factories in the Midlands and London, winding up in the hands of buyers everywhere in the world; in 1715, "the government discovered that London gunsmiths were making 15,500 guns," with some 4,000 of them "for Service not Known," as a contemporary document put it. A century later, and more than 151,000 British guns were bound for India, Indonesia, and China. This early military-industrial complex also valued interchangeability, standardization, and mass production, which would come to define the manufacture of nearly everything else. While standardization was not commonplace until after the Crimean War, it was at a premium well before. After 1815, Satia writes, the gun business faded somewhat as slavery wound down, for the slave trade was bound up part and parcel in armaments. She closes with a sharp look at today's mass shootings, which she considers "historically specific"—i.e., the product of a time in which guns are used for private grievances more than empire-building.A solid contribution to the history of technology and commerce, with broad implications for the present.

Kirkus Reviews