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The familiar image of the British in the Second World War is that of the plucky underdog taking on German might. David Edgerton's bold, compelling new history shows the conflict in a new light, with Britain as a very wealthy country, formidable in arms, ruthless in pursuit of its interests, and in command of a global production system. Rather than belittled by a Nazi behemoth, Britain arguably had the world's most advanced mechanized forces. It had not only a great empire, but allies large and small.
Edgerton shows that Britain fought on many fronts and its many home fronts kept it exceptionally well supplied with weapons, food and oil, allowing it to mobilize to an extraordinary extent. It created and deployed a vast empire of machines, from the humble tramp steamer to the battleship, from the rifle to the tank, made in colossal factories the world over. Scientists and engineers invented new weapons, encouraged by a government and prime minister enthusiastic about the latest technologies. The British, indeed Churchillian, vision of war and modernity was challenged by repeated defeat at the hands of less well-equipped enemies. Yet the end result was a vindication of this vision. Like the United States, a powerful Britain won a cheap victory, while others paid a great price.
Putting resources, machines and experts at the heart of a global rather than merely imperial story, Britain's War Machine demolishes timeworn myths about wartime Britain and gives us a groundbreaking and often unsettling picture of a great power in action.
- Sales Rank: #1546140 in Books
- Published on: 2011-09-09
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.40" h x 1.50" w x 9.40" l, 1.77 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 464 pages
Review
"A fascinating revisionist account that is also enjoyable to read. Highly recommended." --CHOICE
"A stunning booktold with authority, clarity and compelling energy." --James Holland, author of The Battle Of Britain
"Absolutely fascinating. This book will make you think differently about Britain's role in the Second World War." --Laurence Rees, author of Auschwitz: The Nazis and the "Final Solution"
"A remarkable achievement. He re-envisions Britain's role in the Second World War and with it Britain's place in modernity. The period will never look the same again." --Adam Tooze, author of The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
"An important corrective to the black-and-white portrait of the period that still prevails" --Financial Times
"Edgerton has written what could prove to be one of the most influential books on the history of the Second World War ... majestic ... [he] has successfully shown us that we still have a lot to learn about the conflict ... it will become the required reading for all students wishing to study the Second World War" --Reviews in History
"A major new assessment of Britain's war effort from 1939 to 1945. Never again will some of the lazy assessments of how Britain performed over these years ... be acceptable. That's why this is such an important book." --History Today
"Edgerton's well-researched volume bursts with data that reveal Britain's true strength even when supposed to be in critical condition." --Peter Moreira Military History
"Brilliant and iconoclastic ... debunks the myth that Britain was militarily and economically weak and intellectually parochial during the 1930s and 1940s." --David Blackburn, Spectator Book Blog
"This book has certainly changed my views ... It is a necessary and timely corrective to a great deal of loosely thought-through conventional wisdom, and makes a real contribution to our understanding of the war." --Richard Holmes, Literary Review
"Accessibly written and deserves a wide audience. Above all, Edgerton demonstrates that the war is a subject we haven't yet heard nearly enough about. Britain's War Machine is a considerable achievement." --Graham Farmelo, Times Higher Education
"Edgerton has excelled himself with this highly revisionist account of Britain's national performance during the Second World War ... an unusually provocative book." --Twentieth Century British History
"Brilliant and thought-provoking ... There are moments of edgy humour, too ... This remarkable book shows that whatever the reasons for the length of time it took to bring Hitler to heel, the quantity and quality of British war material was not among them." --Brendan Simms, Sunday Telegraph
About the Author
David Edgerton is the Hans Rausing Professor at Imperial College, London, where he was the founding director of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. He is the author of the iconoclastic and brilliant The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History since 1900 (OUP, 2007).
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Too much counter-revisionism
By Jeffrey F. Bell
This book is aimed at countering revisionist historians who have denigrated the British Empire's war effort in WWII. It makes many good points about the UK's wealth relative to Germany and the USSR and the relative efficiency with which this wealth was mobilized for the war effort. The author punctures many popular myths about Nazi efficiency and German weapons quality (myths which are still being promoted in popular books and endless cable TV documentaries. A new discovery for me was the huge loss of planes and pilots suffered by the German and Japanese air arms in merely ferrying aircraft to the battle fronts. The author doesn't explain this but I think it was due to the lack of instrument flight training and proper navigation aids.
However, the author goes too far in his defense of the quality of British weapons. In too many areas British fighting men were saddled with very expensive hardware that was just not up to the demands of the modern battlefield:
Aircraft: A large amount of productive capacity was wasted on failed designs like Defiant, Roc, Botha, Fulmar, Albemarle, Warwick, and Windsor (the last two duds were designed by Barnes Wallis!). Some of these were doomed by idiotic ideas of the RAF staff, others ruined by overstretched engineering staffs at small firms.
Ships: The author waxes poetic about the KING GEORGE V-class battleships, but experts agree that they were the worst of the 35,000t Treaty-limited battleships. These ships' own officers sent letters of complaint to the Admiralty after operating alongside American battleships. Sleeping and messing facilities on RN vessels were primitive. Poor planning meant that many designs like the Flower-class corvettes were used for tasks they were not designed for.
Tanks: I agree with the author that British tanks were unfairly blamed for some failed operations that were ruined by aristocratic ex-cavalry officers' poor tactics, but his attempt to rehabilitate British tank designers is unconvincing. He uses the bad practice of comparing guns and armor while ignoring mechanical reliability and human engineering. British tanks were woefully poor in both areas, with weak transmissions and 2-man turrets. By Edgerton's analysis the French tanks whipped in 1940 would be the best of the war!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent
By JBWodehousian
I am reading this book now and it is extraordinarily informative, well written and engaging. I highly recommend this for anyone who is a serious scholar of British History.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Fascinating analysis of Britain's industrlal effort in World War II
By Bayard B.
A little over the top in terms of presenting the idea that everything was wonderful about Britain's industrial effort regarding aircraft, tanks, ship building, and so forth. For a more balanced view on British tank design and manufacture (for example) see Death by Design by Peter Beale and Blood, Sweat, and Arrogance by Gordon Corrigan. For a thorough discussion of the relatively low level of the German military industry in the second world war, see The Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze. None the less, it does present a good alternative to the traditional historical view that Germany was the ultimate technical and industrial leader in the war.
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