Warfare State: Britain, 1920–1970

by David Edgerton

This impressively researched and controversial book presents an alternative account of the development of one of the greatest states of the twentieth-century. It represents the culmination of David Edgerton's long-standing research on the relationship between science, technology, the military and the British state. Edgerton seeks to put the warfare state back into the history of twentieth-century Britain by restoring militarism, science and technology to that history and by challenging conventional accounts that centre on the notion of the welfare state and the narrative of British decline.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

382 pages, Paperback

First published August 12, 2005

About the author

David Edgerton FBA was educated at St John's College, Oxford, and Imperial College London. After teaching the economics of science and technology and the history of science and technology at the University of Manchester, he became the founding director of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at Imperial College, London, and Hans Rausing Professor. He has held a Major Research Fellowship (2006–2009) from the Leverhulme Trust. In 2013, he led the move of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine to the Department of History of King's College London.

Reviews

[jars m]

read it for uni. very passionate monograph about something which i know nothing about, so it was a bit eye-glazeingly dense at times. the idea of a 'historiography from below' was charming.