Product Description

In August 1914, the two greatest navies in the world confronted each other across the North Sea. At first there were skirmishes, then battles off the coasts of England and Germany and in the far corners of the world, including the Falklands. The British attempted to force the Dardanelles with battleships - which led to the Gallipoli catastrophe. As the stalemate on the ground on the Western Front continued, the German Navy released a last strike against the British 'ring of steel'. The result was Jutland, a titanic and brutal battle between dreadnoughts.The knowledge, understanding and literary power Robert K. Massie brings to this story is unparalleled. There will never again be a war like this in which seagoing monsters hurl shells at each other until one side is destroyed. The story is driven by some of the most dramatically intriguing personalities in history: Churchill and Jacky Fisher, Jellicoe and Beatty. And then there were the powerful Germans - von Pohl, Scheer, Hipper, and the grand old fork-bearded genius Tirpitz. "Castles of Steel" is a book about leadership and command, bravery and timidity, genius and folly, qualities which are of course displayed magnificently by Robert K. Massie's literary mastery.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #105354 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 880 pages

From the Publisher
Castles of Steel - by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Dreadnought ... 'is decidedly a battleship book: stately, immense and telling a mighty story mightily.' Jan Morris, New Statesman

About the Author
Robert Massie is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, Dreadnought and The Romanovs: The Final Chapter. He lives in Irvington, New York.

Customer Reviews

A brilliant book
A marvellous evocation of the Great War at sea. Mr. Massie paints a breathtakingly broad canvas, filled with many characters with all their strengths and weaknesses, quirks and foibles. (He is unashamedly a fan of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, the engineer of the victory at sea of the First World War who was as shabbily treated as was Air Vice-Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, the winner of the Battle of Britain in the Second. Funny people, the British.) He also captures technicalities, tactics, places, events with prose that never drops below readable and which is at times as exciting as any novel. A must-read for anyone interested in the history of the 20th century and a worthy follow-on from Mr. Massie's excellent "Dreadnought".

An excellent peice of work
Having never read much about European history I was completely converted many years ago after reading Dreadnought. It was a pleasure to find this book continues in the same manner and I was not disappointed in any way.

The most appealing aspect of the book is the way Massie brings to life the details of politicians/admirals and then links these events in a way that illustrates the part they played in the grand scheme.

In particular I was left fascinated and exasperated at the personalities involved and how an individual's whim could so badly affect the way important issues, as warship design or where to start a new front in the war, were decided. The description of the Jellico/Beaty debate left me frankly amazed.

However the key to the book for me is that the subject, the war at sea, is covered from such differing angles as the politicians involved to the accounts of people who played a small part in the action. Additionally it is written in such a way that even knowing who won didnt detract from the suspense.

History should always be like this
Having read Robert Massie's earlier book Dreadnought, which I enjoyed so much I read it twice, I waited impatiently for this promised sequel, and I was not disappointed. Some books you hope will never end and this is one of them. There is not a dull page in the book. Massie brings characters alive with amusing anecdotes. You have probably read other accounts of the WW1 sea battles but they are dry by comparison. His cannot be equalled for well-paced storytelling, scholarly research and balanced judgments. He uses official and unofficial publications and diaries from both the British and German sides to describe the dilemmas the opposing commanders and politicians faced and why they acted as they did, situating each battle in its strategic context. I cannot recommend this book too highly.