The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy (Oxford Illustrated Histories) [Paperback]

J. R. Hill (Editor), Bryan Ranft (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0198605277 | ISBN-13: 978-0198605270 | Publication Date: October 17, 2002

Throughout its history the Royal Navy has been of great importance for the defense of Britain and has over the centuries entrenched itself in the national psyche, making itself manifest not only through the hero-worship of its principal characters such as Horatio Nelson and Sir Francis Drake but also finding expression through art, music, and literature.
The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy is the definitive one-volume history of the Royal Navy. The text has now been updated for this paperback edition to cover more recent events and developments, covering every aspect of naval history from the Anglo-Saxon period to the dawn of the new millennium, including terrorist attacks on New York and Washington and the subsequent retaliation on terrorist bases in Afghanistan. With a full chronology, which has been brought up to date to the end of 2001, and an extensive list of further reading, this highly illustrated reference book gives an authoritative and highly readable account of a unique fighting service and its people.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This eponymous complement to The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Army doesn't quite sing "Rule Britannia," but it does lavishly chronicle the many-centuried saga whereby that patriotic anthem's assertion became indisputable. Such at least was the case during Britain's nineteenth-century apogee, a period of somnolent superiority until imperial Germany constructed its fleet. Each of a dozen such phases or aspects in the Royal Navy's development receives the attention of a historian whose uncommon depth, combined with fluid generalizing, disproves Churchill's dismissal of Royal Navy tradition as nothing but "rum, buggery, and the lash." Broadly, the editors have sent their authors after the subjects of naval architecture (from galleon to nuclear sub), naval personnel and bureaucracy (from piracy to professionalism), and voyages and battles (from the Armada to the Falklands). Backed by hundreds of images, the chapters interlock to describe an evolving institution punctuated by famous dramas, such as Cook's voyages or the Battle of Trafalgar, undergirded by the year-to-year chore of funding and crewing vessels. A volume of balance between perspective and detail that delights and informs the nautically minded. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

J. R. Hill served for over 40 years in the Royal Navy in sea and Whitehall appointments, ending his career in 1983 as Rear-Admiral. He has since been Under-Treasurer of the Middle Temple, retiring in 1994, and since 1980 has written nine books on maritime warfare, strategy, history, and arms control. He has lectured and given conference papers, worldwide, on similar subjects. He is editor of The Naval Review and was Chairman of the Society for Nautical Research from 1994 to 1999.

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (October 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198605277
• ISBN-13: 978-0198605270
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,442,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)