Britain's War Machine

The long-standing controversialist David Edgerton has excelled himself with this highly revisionist account of Britain's national performance during the Second World War. The book is targeted at a general audience, but that does not minimize or in any way weaken the case that he makes. It is an unusually provocative book. One might think that there is little left to be said about the British state during this period, but in fact precisely the opposite is the case: the established narratives of the Second World War have proven so resilient that it is only now that new perspectives are being advanced. There remains much work to be done. Edgerton's book focuses on Britain's role as the hub of a global system of power, and uses this as a jumping-off point to reinterpret the war. Indeed, Britain was the most powerful state in the world in 1939 and remained so until 1942. As in 1914, Germany lacked the strength—actual and potential—to best Britain, and in a protracted struggle most of the advantages lay with the latter. This offers an unfamiliar view of Britain at war, and one very much at odds with national myths of plucky British underdogs going it alone during their finest hour and only surviving, let alone winning, because of various near-miraculous deliverances. This analysis builds on Edgerton's well-known ‘warfare state’ thesis, and the book ranges across technological innovation, resource deployment, and the role of experts in Whitehall. The chapters consider the ‘assurance of victory’ given Britain's formidable underlying power; the state's remarkable adaptability; a powerful record of armaments production that matched—and bettered—anything achieved by Nazi Germany; an ability to fight the war on credit, while Germany exhausted herself; Britain's freedom to largely wage war on her own terms, thanks to the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy; developments in weapons technology; and the influence of scientists, technocrats, and other ‘boffins’ in wartime government

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Art · First world war · Literature · Mythology · Narrative · Period (music · Point (geometry · Political science · Power (physics · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · State (computer science · World War II · Computer Science · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History of Science and Medicine · Classics · History · Law