Dreadnought (Paperback)

by Robert K. Massie (Author) "Queen Victoria was mostly German..." (more)
Key Phrases: additional dreadnoughts, new dreadnoughts, dreadnought building, Lord Salisbury, First Lord, House of Commons (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Massie's sweeping narrative centers around the naval rivalry between Britain and Germany after the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, highlighting this as one of the major tensions that led to WW I. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This is a case study in the limits of a particular style of history. Massie's previous biographically focused narrative histories, Peter the Great ( LJ 9/15/80) and Nicholas and Alexandra ( LJ 7/67), succeeded intellectually because of the nature of autocratic decision making. The British and German systems were too complicated and too democratic to respond to a biographical focus. This massive volume, while reminding us of the importance of individuals in decision making, nevertheless ultimately misrepresents the Anglo-German rivalry as essentially a conflict of personalities. The naval race, purportedly the book's focus, is submerged in a sea of anecdotes about ministers and monarchs. Many are interesting; few are original. Moreover, neither Massie's text nor his bibliography shows significant traces of the immense body of German-language scholarship on this complex subject. Long and intricate for the general reader, this is incomplete for the serious student. Paul Kennedy's equally massive The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism (Allen & Unwin, 1980) is no less well written and provides a much more comprehensive account. BOMC main selection.
- D.E. Showalter, U.S. Air Force Acad., Colorado Springs
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1040 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (September 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345375564
• ISBN-13: 978-0345375568
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #104,548 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dreadnaught, May 30, 2001

By	J. Lindner (Gem Lake, MN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Often, non-military historians dismiss wars as "boring" and state the real "history" is what happens before or after the conflict. In Dreadnaught, Robert Massie thoroughly analyzes the decades before the Great War to illustrate how the war occurred. While the underlying theme is the naval arms race between Britain and Germany, Massie covers the royal family relationships across the continent, geo-political ambitions of the several European powers, the build up of armies, and the economic situation. Each of these elements contributed to the coming of war.

Dreadnaught is perhaps the most detailed account presently available in a single volume, and it is worth the time to read this fine book. From clshes in eastern Europe to north Africa that were precursors to global conflict, to the heads of state involved to the military leaders, this book covers the entire historical landscape that puts World War I in proper perspective.

Massie's work should remain the standard in its field for years to come. Though it is long, the reader will yearn for more when finished.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great Naval Arms Race Between Tirpitz and Fisher , September 3, 2004

By	Matherson (New York) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Massie's "Dreadnought" is, on one level, the stirring and fascinating tale of how two navies - British and German - evolved in the late part of the 19th century and emerged, in the 1910s, as two closely-matched, high-tech capital fleets at either end of the North Sea. On a deeper level, however, this history revises - or at least places in context - the land-borne histories of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, which explain the roots of World War One in terms of the "Guns of August" and the armies that mobilized over the summer of 1914. As Massie shows, the rivalry between Britan and Germany arose much earlier, and was borne not of competing General Staff plans but a bureaucratic desire - on both sides of the dispute, but more so on Tirpitz - to acquire more funding for the naval constuction programs. In order to acquire more funding, Tirpitz and his British counterparts had to identify a present or potential threat that justified a buildup in defense spending, and so the need to identify a potential naval adversary dictated that the parties would soon find themselves adverse to one another. Although Massie introduces the Prussian characters with panache - the walrus-mustached Bismarck; the fork-bearded Tirpitzm; the deformed Kaiser - he is best when describing the British rulers of the early twentieth century: Campbell-Bannerman, Asquith, Lloyd-George and the brilliant Sir Edward Grey. The clear "hero," however, is the brilliant Jacky Fisher, inventor of the epynomous "Dreadnought" battleship class, sponsor of the all-diesel turbine engine and relentless modernizer: if World War One turned entirely on the naval campaign (a thesis Massie pursues in the sequel, "Castles of Steel"), truly it was Fisher who saved the Empire from German aggression. A magisterial work, with much color and light, as well as many classic social vignettes.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Massie's Masterpiece (refers to hardcover edition), March 15, 2003

By	Christoph Kelly (Auburn, WA.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is one of finest works of non-fiction ever written! Anyone who would like a fundamental understanding of pre-World War I Europe and the political intrigue that went along with it, should read this fine work. One empire was firmly entrenched on the world stage, one nation wanted an empire and two other empires were crumbling. It is long but there is never a dull moment. Massie clearly lays out in fine detail, the naval arms between Great Britain and Germany. His research alone must have been quite an undertaking. The author also described in a very understandble way, the technological innovations that made these new battleships state of the art. But most importantly, he lays out his argument, that fundamentally Kaiser Wilhelm is responsible for World War I. This becomes clearer near the end of the book when Massie describes the final days of peace and how those events spun out of control. Those pages alone make the book worth reading. I disagree with a previous reviewer that the book was Anglo-centric. I think the Germans and the Brits come off as they really were. The Prussians were very belligerent. A united Germany was still a young "upstart" nation. Germany was a nation of immense cultural and technological richness, but a nation that always has seemed to make bad choices. The Kaiser had we would call today "an attitude" or a chip on his shoulder. I also had very little knowledge of the pre-war Balkans. Especailly enlightening was learning of the Balkan War of 1912. Massie has created a masterpiece that any student of history should read.