Customer Reviews

Jane's War at Sea 1897-1997: 100 Years of Jane's Fighting Ships

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A strong review of the late 19th transition from sail to steam, with lucid insights into the effect of both world politics and Alfred T. Mahan on the construction of modern navies. The book is chock full of the gorgeous drawings and photos we expect of Jane's.

The chapters post WW2 are somewhat cursory and disappointing. It would have been appropriate to include a chapter speculating on the future of fighting ships into the next century.

This is the sort of book that would make a great gift for the budding naval buff in your family. Lots of beautiful illustrations spanning both black and white and full colour with drawings thrown in to boot in some places make this a very attractive book and it's hardcover nature will see them protected for a long time.

In terms of the actual textual content the book skips along in a fairly easily read style and the avoidance of too much technical and engineering jargon is a great boon to readability... I recall skipping through this thing in a day. Of course in a book of this size and with subject matter so broad you are not going to get in depth analysis of each and every facet of naval warfare from 1897 - 1997 and let's face it, such a work would be untenable in a single volume anyway.

While the more experienced naval buff may not need to put this down as a 'must have' I feel that it's style and quality means they should definitely put it on their 'would like' pile. And as I said in my opening line, if you have a younger person with a naval interest this would make a perfect gift for them.

The book War at Sea that I bought is in a very good condition and I have received the book more than a month before the listed date. Excellent.