The Sinews of Power: War, Money and the English State, 1688-1783

The above quote is the opening of War, Money, and the English State. There have been many histories of Britain's military successes in the century after the expulsion of James II Stuart--biographies of the first Duke of Marlborough, histories of the British navy, narratives of the Seven Years' War, and so forth. There have been many histories of Britain's economic growth--and even attempts to explain why Britain saw such mercantile and then industrial success in the eighteenth century. But the connection? John Brewer takes on the task of filling in the gap: how was Britain's economic success translated into massive military power?

This question is especially interesting because Britain appeared to successfully mobilize its resources for eighteenth century wars in a manner very different from the continental "absolutist" powers. The apparatuses of royal secret police, lits de justice, the co-option of the middle nobility in the centralization of power and authority, and the ideology of a king "freed from the duty of observing the laws" are in large part absent from British military mobilization. It followed a different pattern--one that may have had decisive consequences for human history...

John Brewer handles his topic superbly, making The Sinews of Power one of the best books I read in 1991, and making it one of the best books I read in 1995, when I re-read it.