RaveThe Guardian\"This approach faces the same difficulties as all other monocausal explanations of a phenomenon that was varied and complex. But read as a study of guns, violence and empire, this book is a triumph ...
What remains problematic, however, is Satia’s attempt to relate her rich material to the British industrial revolution. Whenever and wherever it occurs, industrialisation amounts to a total reworking of the way in which societies provide for their people, transforming economic activity, but also social and political life, and the environment. It occurred in Switzerland, for example, only a few decades after Britain, but without guns, violence, and empire. Something else must be at stake.\
