The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare [Paperback]

John Keegan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1990

Keegan illuminates the history of naval combat by expertly dissecting four landmark sea battles, each featuring a different type of warship: The Battle of Trafalgar, the Battle of Jutland in World War I, the Battle of Midway in World War II, and the long and arduous Battle of the Atlantic.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The author here analyzes four landmark naval engagements: the 1805 British victory at Trafalgar; the WW I battle of Jutland; the WW II battles of Midway and the Atlantic. "Keegan writes as authoritatively as his admirers have come to expect," maintained PW. Photos. 35,000 first printing.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Keegan ( The Face of Battle), a distinguished analyst of land warfare, moves in this work to the human dynamics of war at sea. He structures his work around four battles: Trafalgar, Jutland, Midway, and the Atlantic. Each was defined by a particular weapons system. Yet for all the importance of technology, ways of living were as important as methods of fighting. Keegan's aphoristically stimulating theses include the suggestion that "man killing" rather than "ship killing" decided Trafalgar. The behavior of Kaiser Wilhelm's navy in World War I is described as conditioned by an officer corps readier to die heroically than to keep the sea for months and years on end. Such insights show Keegan at his best: blazing trails for others to footnote. Recommended for most collections.
- Dennis E. Showalter, Colorado Coll., Colorado Springs
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); First Edition edition (February 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140096507
• ISBN-13: 978-0140096507
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #222,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Keegan's books include The Iraq War, Intelligence in War, The First World War, The Battle for History, The Face of Battle, War and Our World, The Masks of Command, Fields of Battle, and A History of Warfare. He is the defense editor of The Daily Telegraph (London). He lives in Wiltshire, England.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An insightful look at 4 important naval battles, April 26, 2002

By 

Craig MACKINNON (Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare (Paperback)

John Keegan has turned his formidable talent to analysing some of the most famous naval battles of the last 200 years. For each, he gives an insightful look into the recent history of the times, emphasising technological aspects of ship handling and weapons. He then breaks down the battles into easy-to-comprehend chunks, followed by an analysis of the consequences (usually political) and the more immediate cost in terms of the sailors and ships involved.

While all 4 battles are famous examples of their type, Keegan seems to waffle between choosing battles that were decisive and those that were stalemates. Trafalgar was a decisive battle, but it was unusual in the Age of Sail that one navy enjoyed such a complete victory over its enemy. Alternatively, Jutland was a large battle, but the battle itself was a tactical draw in that both sides left the battle with their proportionate strengths intact. A far more decisive ironclad battle occurred at Tsushima Bay, so why didn't Keegan choose that (admitedly less famous) battle instead?

The remaining two battles are from WWII - Midway and the Battle of the Atlantic. Midway was a clear U.S. victory, and the purest example of carrier-based naval conflict. The Battle of the Atlantic was ultimately decisive as well, but due to the seesaw of technological advancess, the outcome was very much in doubt for 4 years. Although the submarines lost the Battle of the Atlantic, Keegan concludes submarines are the ultimate naval weapon available today, and points to the success of the U.S. submarine offensive against Japan. If that is his conclusion, why not give an account of the Japan-U.S. conflict instead of the Battle of the Atlantic?

This is nitpicking, however. The strength of the book is the masterful analysis of each individual battle. While I question the overall theme and choice of battles, each chapter in and of itself is fantastic. Therefore, it gets 4 stars, as it is inferior to Keegan's Face of Battle and Mask of Command in maintaining an overarching theme.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Attention All Hands: Read this Book, August 21, 2001

By 

Craig Montesano (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare (Paperback)

This was a book, cohorts asserted, that was certain to disappoint those smitten with aircraft carriers and battleships. After all, Keegan's central conclusion about the evolution of the capital ship (which will not be revealed here) seems anathema to those who have devoted their lives to surface warfare.

However, `The Price of Admiralty'- with its soaring prose, penetrating gaze, and inescapable logic - is a classic in the canon of naval history. Keegan is an unconventional historian who offers an original thesis on naval warfare not by assessing the gains of victorious navies, but rather through the emerging trends in each era. In this sense, it is more than straight history. `Admiralty' is a compass point for the future.

Keegan explores the meaning of the term `command of the seas' and strives to discern whether any navy throughout history could lay claim to it. The influence of technology on the outcome of the four major battles covered in the book - Trafalgar, Jutland, Midway, and the Battle of the Atlantic - is demonstrated, to great effect.

Perhaps the most important contribution of `The Price of Admiralty' is its implicit exhortation to think beyond the present and into the future. Through the examples of four naval engagements, Keegan demonstrates the grasp governments had on developing technology, and how this affected war aims. Keegan's conclusions point to the necessity of `thinking outside of the box' and applying the emerging technological trends to war on the high seas. Have we run aground on outdated and outmoded strategy? Or will we think ahead to battles not yet fought, and train future captains in forward-thinking tactics?

This is a remarkable book and a worthy successor to the works of Alfred Thayer Mahan.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Accessible History, December 14, 2000

By 

Prauge Traveler (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare (Paperback)

John Keegan's Price of Admiralty includes all that a volume of subject history should contain. There are short biographies of the major players, anecdotes that lighten as well as enlighten otherwise dry history, good overviews of the naval periods under inspection, descriptions of the major battles, facts and figures to back up his thesis, and perhaps most crucial a nearly seamless transition from period to period. Keegan examines naval warfare from the Napoleonic Wars through both the Atlantic and Pacific campaigns of the Second World War. I personally enjoyed the earlier quarter of the book pertaining to the Age of Sail- the great victories of the Battle of the Nile and Trafalgar. This is a great book if you are interested in expanding your understanding of the development of naval strategies or merely any one of the periods covered: Age of Sail and Napoleonic Wars, Transition to Steam & Ironclads, Age of Battleships and WWI, and both the Atlantic and Pacific Campaigns of WWII. Keegan is always a good read in history and this book is no exception.