Empire of Guns covers a lot of ground. Extraordinarily (and, at times, excessively) detailed chapters address the evolving state of the gun trade in Birmingham; the 'myth' of pacific British industrialism and the reality of continuous war; the 'social life' of guns in England, Africa, India and North America; the relationship between guns, money and private property; changes in the firearms industry after 1815; and opposition to the gun trade over the past 200 years ... By focusing on a single toxic activity, Satia concludes, rather harshly, both sides avoided 'the truth that modern life is founded, intrinsically, on militarism and that industrial life has historically depended on it.' Satia appears to believe that things have not gotten better in the 21st century. To be sure, four “developed” countries (Japan, Great Britain, Australia and Canada) have enacted legislation to reduce gun violence ... A $72 billion industry, with England as the second-biggest supplier, augmenting the political power and economic prowess of governments and 'private' contractors, arms exports are not likely to decline anytime soon.

The book traces the evolution of the literal and symbolic uses of small arms down to the present day, when sales of weapons remain robust. The various international attempts to control or limit small-arms sales are discussed. This important book helps us to look at British and United States history in an unconventional way and makes for great reading.

Whether guns were the deciding factor without which England would not have industrialized is open to question. Satia does not hang her thesis on precisely this point; instead she marshals an overwhelming amount of evidence to show, comprehensively, that guns had a place at the center of every conventional tale historians have so far told about the origins of modern, industrialized world—cultural, scientific, organizational, economical, and political ... The context of such debates has changed, in part as gun technology and gun use have changed. This book leaves us with the disquieting notion that guns—whether the slow and inaccurate weapons of the eighteenth century or today’s models—do more than alternately cloak or expose human inclination towards violence. They also shape it—not just at the individual level, as we are accustomed to debating, but at the societal, even civilizational or global, level as well. 'As we make objects, they make us.'

Professor Satia argues convincingly that the expansion of the armaments industry and the government’s role in it is inseparable from the rise of innumerable associated industries from finance to mining ... The biggest disappointment of Empire of Guns, however, is how little detail there is on the history of gun culture in the United States and its deep hostility to government regulation. The contrast with Britain — and, indeed, all other developed nations — is so striking that it begs for some kind of explanation, particularly given that Britain was historically more economically reliant on this sector of its economy ...Professor Satia has shown how the revolutionary changes in the very nature of guns and their role in society and the economy require those arguments to be considered in a very different light. To do that effectively at this time of national debate over our political, social and moral relationship to the modern gun, more work must be done to fully understand the source of 'American exceptionalism' when it comes to our attitudes toward guns.

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.

She closes with a sharp look at today’s mass shootings, which she considers 'historically specific'—i.e., the product of a time in which guns are used for private grievances more than empire-building. A solid contribution to the history of technology and commerce, with broad implications for the present.

She goes on to argue that indeed it was changes in the nature of violence and the social role of guns in the age of British imperialism that provided the impetus for state-driven industrialization. Yet she provides little evidence for her sweeping claims, failing to address the fact that perpetual warfare was a reality for all European states during the era, not just Britain, and paying scant attention to shifts in agricultural production and demography that were critical to industrial takeoff. Nor does she engage with scholars who argue that the state served as a barrier, rather than an impetus, to industrialization. This book eschews the big picture for a series of stylized historical set pieces.