There is a specter haunting this book and it's the body of work produced by Correlli Barnett in regards to the supposed failures of the British state and society in terms of remaining a great power. Building on a generation's worth of scholarship, Peden illustrates how the accusations about Britain being technologically backward and reactive have very little ground in reality. If anything, the picture is a positive one of a series of British governments who were acutely aware of the technological and economic issues that needed to be dealt with and were serious about squaring accounts considering the strategic challenges that loomed before them. To Peden, the most disruptive element faced by those who made British security policy was probably dealing with inter-service rivalry; particularly in the era when the great controversy was whether the the independent bomber force should or should not be the foundation of British military power. ( )