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. The development and strategic significance of submarine and navy air forces is described, as are the rapid evolution of ships 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. Based on a lifetime's learning, it is the culmination of one of the most significant British historical works in recent decades.
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