The Command of the Ocean describes with unprecedented authority and scholarship the rise of Britain to naval greatness, and the central place of the Navy and naval activity in the life of the nation and government. It describes not just battles, voyages and cruises but how the Navy was manned, how it was supplied with timber, hemp and iron, how its men (and sometimes women) were fed, and above all how it was financed and directed. It was during the century and a half covered by this book that the successful organizing of these last three - victualling, money and management - took the Navy to the heart of the British state. It is the great achievement of the book to show how completely integrated and mutually dependent Britain and the Navy then became.
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780141026909
Number of pages: 978
Weight: 692 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 43 mm
I have never reviewed a book that has given me more pleasure … a masterpiece - Kevin Myers, Mail on Sunday
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
Magisterial … triumphantly succeeds in moving the Royal Navy back to centre-stage in our islands’ story - Andrew Roberts, Sunday Telegraph
Quite outstanding - Sir Michael Howard, The Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year
Stunning … By the time the book closes there is no doubt who holds command - Simon Heffer, Literary Review
Monumental … Rodger is our finest naval historian - Saul David, Daily Telegraph
Exciting and original … Here is that rarest of all historians, the expert with the generalist’s approach - Geoffrey Moorhouse, Guardian
Truly in a class of its own … at turns witty, provocative and incisive … you finish it wishing for more - F. J. M. Scott, History Today
Scholarly and erudite, but also a thrilling story, told with wit and verve - Economist, Books of the Year
Splendid … There is plenty of old-fashioned narrative in this encyclopaedic blockbuster … the writing advances across the pages like a squadron of dreadnoughts - John Parfitt, Spectator
An enterprise of truly stupendous scope and erudition … Even the annotated bibliography, with its deadpan, often savage comments, is a pleasure to read - Brendan Simms, Evening Standard
N. A. M. Rodger is the doyen of naval scholars … This is an excellent book - Frank McLynn, New Statesman
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