"This path-breaking study is about how ordinary people are gaining the means to be extraordinarily lethal. States are also concentrating their technological power, but their gains lag behind a shift in relative capacity that is already disrupting the role of conventional armed forces. The dispersal of emerging technologies such as roboics, cyber weapons, 3-D printing, autonomous systems, and various forms of artificial intelligence is widening popular...

"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...