Product Description

The author concentrates on four key conflicts, Trafalgar, Jutland, Midway and the Battle of the Atlantic. He aims to take readers into the heart of the fighting and also to give them a panoramic view of naval warfare through the centuries. John Keegan has also written an account of war on land, "The Face of Battle".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #612833 in Books
• Published on: 1993-12-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From the Publisher
Britain's foremost military historian, Sir John Keegan, brilliantly examines the realities of war at sea.

About the Author
John Keegan is the Defence Editor of the Daily Telegraph and Britain's foremost military historian. The Reith Lecturer in 1998, he is the author of many bestselling books including The Face of Battle, Six Armies in Normandy, The Mask of Command, The Second World War, A History of Warfare (awarded the Duff Cooper Prize), Warpaths, The Battle for History, The First World War, and most recently, Intelligence in War. For many years John Keegan was the Senior Lecturer in Military History at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and he has been a Fellow of Princeton University and Delmas Distinguished Professor of History at Vassar. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He received the OBE in the Gulf War honours list, and was knighted in the Millennium honours list in 1999.

Customer Reviews

Excellent and accessible
I read this book under the title "The Price of Admiralty"; it appears to be the same work. An excellent description of naval warfare, with thoughtful analysis and detailed scholarship. It covers both the four featured battles/engagements and the larger context in which they occurred. Easy to read, clear, and entertaining, without being too simplified or sensationalized. Strongly recommended.

Pretty damn good
I really enjoy the well-researched insights that Keegan brings to life in his books. Battle at Sea deals with the development of naval warfare from the wooden battleships of the gunpowder age to the nuclear subs of the present. Keegan shows how war at sea has evolved in the last few centuries and gives his assessment (or, let's be honest - qualified guess) of how naval warfare will evolve in the near future.
The book is well-written - though the copy I received had a remarkable amount of spelling-mistakes; poor proof-reading? - and it offers a very clear picture of the times it portrays. The battles seem clear and straight-forward even-though massive amounts of ships, sailors, planes and submarines are involved in them - overwhelmingly confusing to the participants, no doubt, but clear to the reader, thanks to Keegan's guiding hand.
This book, however, doesn't quite reach the level of brilliance that Keegan shows in Face of Battle, Mask of Command and in his two epic volumes about the First and Second World Wars; leaving this a very good book, but not a masterpiece.
In spite of this, it is still highly recommendable to anyone who has an interest in naval warfare or in military history in general.