Customer Reviews

Battle at Sea: 3,000 Years of Naval Warfare

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At 360 pages, R.G. Grant's large-format "Battle At Sea: 3,000 Years of Naval Warfare" is a masterful chronology of the countless sea battles fought since the beginnings of recorded civilization.

What distinguishes the effort is not so much the concise narrative history that the author serves up, but the enticing graphics format -- the hallmark of DK Publishing. Viewing each page is like wandering through a great museum with its exquisite blend of interesting objects, maps, paintings, diagrams, 3D battle plans, photographs and battle accounts.

The highlight of Mr. Grant's book are the wonderful color photographic tours of key vessels from all eras including: The Athenian trireme Olympias, Austrian war gallery Galera Real, British ship-of-the-line Victory, Japanese pre-dreadnought Mikasa, US battleship Texas, US aircraft carrier Lexington, and modern US destroyer Donald Cook.

Like B.G. Grant's Warrior: A Visual History of the Fighting Man, "Battle At Sea: 3,000 Years of Naval Warfare" will make a fine addition to the coffee table of any history enthusiast.

Great book that includes descriptions of many sea battles from the East that are often ignored in histories. Illustrations are good, often photos of models. Battles get an average of 2 pages each, arranged in chronological order.

I originally looked for a book on Naval History for a young man graduating from College. There were many that looked good to choose from when I spotted this one. It is an awesome picture book but also full of information. It has a captivating layout and a wealth of illustrations. The reviews I read were all positive and true. I knew my husband would like it too so I ordered one for him for Father's day. When we gave the gift to the young man, he loved it...throughout the day either one or both of them were in that book! I thought my husband was going to hide it so he would forget it at our house! He was very glad to receive his own and has been enjoying it very much!

It is a big hit with both of the men who received it!

This richly illustrated book has some stunning illustrations and diagrams. For these alone it is worth purchasing.
However, if one is interested in the subject, battle at sea, then one will encounter some frustrating issues with this book. The diagrams use models in some cases, and in others the ship icons are too large for the space of the battle. The result is that the actual battle maneuvers cannot be understood well from most of the diagrams presented.
Granted, the exact course of many ancient battles are barely known, if at all. Even so, the battle diagrams are a great disappointment. In going for an "artsy" touch, whatever real information about a given sea battle might have been available is obscured, if not lost altogether.
In addition, the layout of the book seemed overly crowded, like so many books today, with the pictures and text visually giving the feeling they had all been shoehorned onto the page.
If you want some pretty pictures, this is not too bad a book. If you want some real information about battles at sea, this is not the best book to buy.

DK has long published military histories, many "coffee-table" sized and filled with photos, paintings, maps and thumbnails of great land, sea and air battles.

This title, covering the history of naval warfare, is one of the best efforts I've seen from them. Its presentation can fairly be called sumptuous. The text, written by R. G. Grant is detailed and apparently authoritative, though proofreading could have been better: one ship is allegedly scuttled a year before it takes part in a historic battle. None of the errors are serious and there are not many of them.

The book ranges from the earliest known sea battles noted in Egyptian history through the Greeks into the modern operations in the Gulf. There is an introductory gallery of excellent photographs that familiarizes the reader with the designs and types of ships throughout the ages and provides a handy glossary.

Major battles are illustrated on two page (and sometimes longer) spreads with excellent descriptive narrative and very well done 3D maps. There are also many insets showing details of the ships involved, historical paintings and the like.

There are a few feature spreads, such as one on the only pre-dreadnought in existence, which was also Admiral Togo's flagship in the Russo-Japanese naval war.

Overall, a tour through this book is like touring the naval history museum to end all naval history museums. It really is a treat for the military buff or amateur historian. Well worth the price for many hours of pleasure.

Jerry

DK has created another academic/artistic masterpiece.

"Battle At Sea, 3000 Years of Naval Warfare" is jam packed with brilliant visual design, and insightful text capturing known facts and strategy. Just like Biff in Back to the Future with his book of athletic results, were this book transported back in time, who can imagine what our geopolitical world might look like?

R G Grant is an encyclopedia of naval history, and this, his 21st book, shows the extent of it. From the age of galleys to the age of modern battleships, he illustrates each crucial era and battle with photographs, time lines, and maps that summarize marvelously. My favorite section is the Gallera Real, with its' rich, exsquisite decor. Forget about modern day trailers, these guys had the real thing.

Each of the 400 pages is an education in itself. Can you imagine being 'fed' by books such as these all of your academic life? Our education would be far more indepth, and precise.

Bravo!

I went through this book as a potential textbook for a naval history course. I would have chosen it, had it come out a little earlier :) It's got a great glossary and plenty of pictures, which would be great for students who aren't familiar with ships or how they work. It's even a good choice for a non-student. Very well done!

The book arrived in a timely fashion and was in pristine condition.
The book is incredibly interesting, very informative, and beautifully illustrated. A must have for those interested in Naval warfare.

In looking at the closing pictures in the book I was overwhelmed by the shear magnitude of the high tech equipment stuffed into the guided-missile destroyer, "USS Donald Cook." It must have cost hundreds of millions of dollar. Extrapolating that over the past several thousand years, the economic and human costs of naval warfare must be tremendous. Certainly not as great as land wars or natural catastrophes, but nonetheless a great waste.

The book, "Battle at Sea," kept my attention over the weeks I read at a leisurely pace. Some of the pictures are stunning. The narrative gives a good overview to naval warfare. I liked seeing the illustrations of earlier combat ships, both the reconstructions and contemporary illustrations. I found the maps which dramatized the action of combat almost unusable. One always wonders about the accuracy of such clean cut maps with their arrows and battle lines. The fog of war, particularly early navel encounters, belies such neat and clean portrayals. Besides I couldn't follow the action from the maps in the book. I think they were unnecessary.

Because I read the book in spare moments over a long period of time it is hard to remember details of its narrative. The descriptions of Israeli-Arab encounters and the Falkland war (though the author doesn't touch upon the arrogance of the Argentines and the cost in lives of Britain's who refused to accept the impotence of their vanished empire) were particularly interesting because I don't remember those events well. I would have liked the book to be a little more critical about the arrogance of politicians and their fleets (like the Crimea or the Kaiser's WWI armada) the inadequacies of navel planners, the ill design of boats and the stupidities of commanders. Although I suspect the author would have come to very different conclusions than I in my reading of naval history. So be it. It was fun to pick up the book and look at pictures of boats, ships, and their encounters.

Charlie Fisher, emeritus prof. and author of Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World

I was not receiving my shipment ordered in Oct.09. So I wrote Amazon's customer service and they shipped another copy via DHL at no cost to Brazil where I am now. I was a nice Xmas gift!
As to the book I highly recommend it to people who are interested in History particularly Naval History: 3 to 5 thousand years over and under the sea.
Thanks again