Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom by Peter Padfield

Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom by Peter Padfield

This book charts the epic struggle between Great Britain and revolutionary and Napoleonic France, revealing both the hidden forces beneath the surface of events and the strategies and battle tactics which ensured Britain the final victory. In Maritime Supremacy and the Opening of the Western Mind, Peter Padfield covered the rise of the Dutch to supreme naval and commercial power in the 17th century and their displacement by the British, followed by the 18th-century struggle between Great Britain and Bourbon France. He now explores the contrasts between British power based on trade and sea control and French power based on territorial conquest, and shows how their respective societies were imprinted with irreconcilably different ways of thought and systems of government and finance. He presents the French Revolution and Napoleon in a radical light as essentially regressive, Britain, for better or worse, as the progressive herald of modern liberties. The reader is placed on the gun deck, amid the cannon, smoke, blood and death, or alongside the great leaders, Pitt, Nelson, Wellington or Napoleon Bonaparte.

'Peter Padfield is the best naval historian of his generation' -- John Keegan 'Peter Padfield's virtues as a naval historian are in giving us the rounded picture, both large and smallHe is as good on strategy and tactics as on the technicalities of signalling and gunnery. He is as much a master of sailing-ship language as an observer of the crews that manned them' -- Ludovic Kennedy, Telegraph 'His sources are rich and well employed in many of the quotations ! An extremely fine and readable naval narrative' -- Paul Kennedy, Sunday TImes 20030727 'Those ready for an adult education in the history of war will be satisfied and those just wanting a good read enthralled ! On naval warfare Padfield is masterly, splicing together the strategic, tactical, technological' -- Tom Pocock, Literary Review 20030701 'His pithy narratives of battle are as gripping as anything written by Patrick O'Brian. But his real achievement lies in the way he places all his descriptions in a wider context to present a convincing thesis about the nature of naval power and the governments that support it' -- Sunday Times 20040215 'Maritime Power is a worthy successor to Padfield's previous book ... It contains enough insight, clarity and drama to delight in its own right. I eagerly await the concluding volume' -- Saul David, Sunday Telegraph 20040215

Peter Padfield made his name with works on the naval gunnery and warships: Guns at Sea, The Battleship Era, Armada and War Beneath the Sea. He is also a practical sailor. He trained as a cadet in HMS Worcester and sailed with the replica seventeenth-century bark Mayflower II to Massachusetts.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780719562938
ISBN 10	0719562937
Title	Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom
Author	Peter Padfield
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	John Murray Press
Year published	2004-02-16
Number of pages	464
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.