The Safeguard of the Seas: Naval History of Britain: v. 1: 660-1649 by N. A. M. Rodger
This history examines the British Navy as an institution as well as an agent of national policy. It describes actions in war and peace, but also its administrative, political, social, economic, financial and technical history, setting each in the context of the deveolopment of society at large. It is not so much a history of the Navy but a naval history of the country. It also looks at the British Navy in an international context.