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(More customer reviews)This volume continues the author's brilliant elucidation of the history of the British navy, so ably begun with The Safeguard of the Sea. The author addresses the navy as a multi-faceted institution, influencing and being influenced by the evolution of politics, taxation, government finance, trade and bureaucracy. Though focused upon the British navy, the book includes a collateral and comparative consideration of naval institutions in France, Spain and Holland.
The author serves up a generally savory mixture of impeccable scholarship and pungent opinion. Nevertheless, American readers may find distasteful his dismissive attitude toward the outcomes of the American Revolution (the "American War") and the War of 1812, and their implications for British naval policy.
Like its predecessor, this volume is chaptered by theme within broad time periods. The thematic structure facilitates the development of theses concerning social organization, finance and the like. The book also includes a Glossory (invaluable)and statistical appendices (valuable, but not priceless).
I await with interest a further volume in this series -- when the author will have to come to terms with the ascendancy of the United States Navy, and modify his thusfar appropriate Euro-centrism. Yankee pride aside, this is an absolutely marvelous book.
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