N. A. M. Rodger

A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815

The Command of the Ocean

A Naval History of Britain 660-1649

The Safeguard of the Sea

From the award-winning naval scholar N. A. M. Rodger comes the most revealing account yet of the mighty Georgian navy and British naval society of the eighteenth century.

An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy

The Wooden World

The final installment of N. A. M. Rodger’s definitive, authoritative trilogy on Britain’s naval history Across two acclaimed volumes, preeminent naval historian N. A. M. Rodger has traced the progress of naval warfare in Britain from the seventh century through to Trafalgar, combining decades of scholarship with original insights and analysis. In this final volume, N. A. M. Rodger delivers a magisterial history of the Royal Navy, beginning after its defeat of Napoleon and concluding in 1945 with the Second World War. 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. Rodger’s comprehensive narrative goes beyond the conduct of war at sea to tell a sprawling story of naval warfare as a national endeavor. As in previous volumes, the social history of officers and men—and now also women—has a prominent place. Along the way, he describes the development and strategic significance of submarine and navy air forces and the rapid evolution of weapons and ships (from classic Nelsonian type to hybrid steam/sail ships, then armor-clad and the fully armored Dreadnoughts and beyond). He assesses the character and importance of leading admirals—Beatty, Fisher, Cunningham—together with the roles of other less famous but no less consequential figures. Rodger sets all this in the essential context of politics and geo-strategy. Based on a lifetime’s learning, The Price of Victory is a masterful culmination of one of the most significant British historical works in recent decades. Naval specialists will find much that is new and will be invigorated by the originality of Rodger’s judgments; but everyone who is interested in one of the central threads in British history will find it rewarding.

A Naval History of Britain: 1815?1945

The Price of Victory

Christopher Lloyd

John Knox Laughton

Michael Duffy

William Gordon Perrin

The Naval Miscellany

Sam Willis

Sails blaze and shred, ranks of cannon trade volleys and, glimpsed through palls of smoke, desperate figures falls to the waves or cling for dear life. Through the eyes of the great maritime painters, the famed ships and and battles of the age of sail are ours to see. Here are vessels being launched and being sunk; in action and on blockade; in port and on voyages of exploration or embassy; as well as architectural drawings, battle diagrams and sea charts; striking portraits of leading figures in naval history, and fascinating images of life below deck.

Fighting Ships, 1750-1850

Brian Vale

A comprehensive account of Britain's naval empire, from 1649-1815, covers how the British Navy was financed, manned, and directed, and documents key figures and battles.

The Armada in the Public Records

Randolph Cock

A Guide to the Naval Records in the National Archives of the UK

It is a century since Mahan and his disciples taught the world that a battlefleet was indispensable to a great power. Great and not-so-great powers till keep powerful navies today, but we have no generally accepted principles to explain why. In this book historians and naval officers from Britain, the United States and other countries study the use of naval power over the present century, and ask what it is for, and what it can do. It will be essential reading for modern historians, policy-makers and strategists.

Naval Power in the Twentieth Century

N. A. M. Rodger

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