ARMS AND THE STATE: Sir William Armstrong and the remaking of British naval power, 1854-1914

Aldershot UK & Burlington, VT: Ashgate Pub Ltd, 2004. Book. Fine. Hardcover. First Edition. pict. fabroid cover, xii, 300 pages, illustrated, 22 pp bibliography, index, Modern economic and social history series."Arms and the State is a history of Britain's first and foremost modern armaments company, the Armstrong Whitworth Company, from its origins in 1854 to 1914. It focuses on the role of Sir William G. Armstrong, an engineer and entrepreneur who transformed his modest mechanical engineering business into a vast industrial enterprise which invented, developed, manufactured and sold heavy guns and warships throughout the world. Arms and the State reconstructs the global arms trade as it follows Armstrong's companies selling the latest weapons to both sides in the American Civil War, Egypt, Turkey and Italy in the 1860s, to China, Chile and Japan in the 1870s and 1880s, and became Britain's leading armaments company in the age of the naval arms races that preceded the First World War. In so doing, it discusses varied topics such as the social and political nature of technological innovation, the quality of Britain's late-Victorian entrepreneurs, and the impact of armaments on British politics, defence policies, the international arms trade and imperialism." (from the rear cover) Size: 8 vo,.(25 cm].