Media Reviews
'Professor Edgerton has set himself a major task, to give 'an alternative account' of British history in the twentieth century ... This is a truly challenging study which should become required reading for historians of twentieth century Britain.' Contemporary Review
' ... a highly detailed study, fiercely integrated with a raft of secondary work, which sustains a number of very broad conclusions with wide application: to the history of the British state; to the history of science and technology; and to the writing of history more generally.' Cultural and Social History
'Michael Rustin 'Edgerton's well documented account of the place of warfare within the British state invites further rethinking of its nature and evolution'. Political Quarterly
'This is a book that will feature on lists of essential reading for students of war.' War in History
'Warfare State strikes an orthodoxy dead ... one suspects that this book will have as fundamental an impact [as John Brewer's work on the 'fiscal-military state']' International History Review
'...well worth reading by anyone interested in war and the state generally, not only in their 20th-century British manifestations.' International Journal
'A fundamental reappraisal of British economic policy, performance, and institutions is now gathering pace. Edgerton's work has long been an inspirational part of that reappraisal. This, his latest, book is without doubt the most important single contribution to the new historiography of twentieth-century Britain.' Alan Booth, Business History Review
'... his book will certainly have an impact among historians ...' The Times Higher Education Supplement
'This book asks fundamentally important questions about how we construct our understandings of the recent British past and contributes to a significant rethinking of British history.' History Today
'This powerful book by David Edgerton ... is one to upset and unsettle a great many people ...' Tribune
'This is one of the most important general books on British twentieth century history to be published for a long time ... grounded in very detailed research and analysis ... this book demands a reassessment of how we think about mid-twentieth century British society.' Twentieth Century British History
'Edgerton's portrait of the 'warfare state' is admirable. He puts the case pungently and with great brio. He should consign the image of a group of bumbling amateurs, with few skills other than the ability to quote Juvenal, to the dustbin of history.' H-Net Book Review
'It is important because it attempts to be genuinely interdisciplinary, enriching economic history by integrating it in particular with military history and the history of science.' Rodney Lowe, University of Bristol and Cabinet Office
'... ambitious and impressive ... The tone is combative ... Throughout interesting ...' Royal United Services Institute Journal
'This challenging volume should become a standard work, both in twentieth-century British history and in the international study of science and war'. Minerva
Edgerton is not arguing, simply, that we must reject interpretations of recent history which focus either upon long economic decline or on the rise of a welfare state and replace them with another over-simple paradigm...Rather he convincingly suggests that we should incorporate both perspectives into our reading of history and ask why each was so significant at certain times. This book asks fundamentally important questions about how we construct our understandings of the recent British past and contributes to a significant re-thinking of British history. -History Today
This is one of the most important general books on British twentieth century history to be published for a long time. Its significance lies not only in the substantive, highly revisionist argument about the nature of the British state and the assessment of why previous accounts have gone astray, but also a persuasive case that this argument about the state makes us re-think almost every aspect of mid-twentieth century Britain.... While the book has general importance, it is grounded in very detailed research and analysis, and draws in particular on an understanding of science and technology that few historians could match. -Jim Tomlinson, University of Dundee, Twentieth Century British History
David Edgerton's Warfare State is a very welcome and successful revising of the history of the Britain from 1920 to 1970....Edgerton provides us with a remarkable scholarly work deconstructing the prevalent conventional narrative which, as he points out, instead of offering a detached historical inquiry into the formation of the British state wound up reflecting partisan aims in 'particular contests about reforming the state' at the time. His book is a major contribution to a growing revisionist literature on the inter-war period which corrects muddled histories that have been put too easily into the service of militarist agendas. The Warfare State powerfully undermines a host of accounts that seek to justify expanding the War Machine without bound. -Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture
...a stimulating book that leads to a serious rethinking of past assumptions on British science, technology, and economic performance. - Journal of British Studies
Prof. Edgerton has set himself a major task, to give 'an alternative account' of British history in the twentieth century... This is a truly challenging study which should become required reading for historians of twentieth century Britain. -Contemporary Review
limitlessly rich ... and well worth reading by anyone interested in war and the state generally, not only in their 20th-century British manifestations. -K.C. Epstein, International Journal
a highly detailed study, fiercely integrated with a raft of secondary work, which sustains a number of very broad conclusions with wide application: to the history of the British state; to the history of science and technology; and to the writing of history more generally. -Chris A. Williams, Cultural and Social History
This is a book that will feature on lists of essential reading for students of war. -George Peden, War in History
Edgerton's well-documented account of the place of warfare within the British state invites further rethinking of it's nature and evolution. -Michael Rustin, The Political Quarterly
without doubt the most important single contribution to the new historiography of twentieth-century Britain. -Alan Booth, Business History Review
bold and ambitious ... it will help to shape historical argument for years to come -Richard Toye, Contemporary European History
As a series of essays on an impressive range of themes, the book is at different times lively and informative...There can be no doubt as to Edgerton's sharpness as a controversialist and his originality as an analyst of the discourse surrounding British science and technology. -Martin Ceadel, New College, University of Oxford, Journal of Modern History
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