Description

The final instalment of N.A.M. Rodger’s definitive, authoritative trilogy on Britain’s naval history

At the end of the French and Napoleonic wars, British sea-power was at its apogee. But by 1840, as one contemporary commentator put it, the Admiralty was full of ‘intellects becalmed in the smoke of Trafalgar’. How the Royal Navy reformed and reinvigorated itself in the course of the nineteenth century is just one thread in this magnificent book, which refuses to accept standard assumptions and analyses.

All the great actions are here, from Navarino in 1827 (won by a daringly disobedient Admiral Codrington) to Jutland, D-Day, the Battle of the Atlantic and the battles in the Pacific in 1944/45 in concert with the US Navy. The development and strategic significance of submarine and navy air forces is superbly described, as are the rapid evolution of ships (from classic Nelsonic type, to hybrid steam/sail ships, then armour-clad and the fully armoured Dreadnoughts and beyond) and weapons. The social history of officers and men – and sometimes women – always a key part of the author’s work, is not neglected.

Rodger sets all this in the essential context of politics and geo-strategy. The character and importance of leading admirals – Beatty, Fisher, Cunningham – is assessed, together with the roles of other less famous but no less consequential figures. Based on a lifetime’s learning, it is the culmination of one of the most significant British historical works in recent decades.

Naval specialists will find much that is new here, and will be invigorated by the originality of Rodger’s judgements; but everyone who is interested in the one of the central threads in British history will find it rewarding.

Publisher Review

Praise for THE COMMAND OF THE OCEAN: I have never reviewed a book that has given me more pleasure ... a masterpiece -- Kevin Myers * Mail on Sunday * Praise for THE COMMAND OF THE OCEAN: A great work of history ... A truly satisfying book that one puts down with regret ... Nothing written during the past century, perhaps ever, approaches N. A. M. Rodger's ambitious and masterly three-volume Naval History of Britain ... it is likely to be regarded as one of the greatest works of historical scholarship of our age -- Paul Kennedy * The Sunday Times * Praise for THE COMMAND OF THE OCEAN: Magisterial ... triumphantly succeeds in moving the Royal Navy back to centre-stage in our islands' story -- Andrew Roberts * Sunday Telegraph * Praise for THE COMMAND OF THE OCEAN: Quite outstanding -- Sir Michael Howard * The Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year *