In Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom, Peter Padfield presents a superb description and analysis of naval campaigns, conducted between 1788 and 1851, that shaped the modern world.
Winner of the Mountbatten Maritime Prize, this is the second of Padfield’s masterful trilogy that traces the impact of naval power on modern history, and the means by which it has been enacted. The book combines vivid and engrossing descriptions of historically important events with careful analysis and intelligent discussion of the idea that maritime powers are fundamentally different – in attitude, behaviours and outcomes – to landlocked states.
‘This is a colourful account of naval actions and, as such, it makes for superb reading, since the author is a consummate wordsmith’ – Paul Kennedy, Sunday Times
‘On naval warfare Padfield is masterly, splicing together the strategic, tactical, technological and social strands of his story with lively narrative, and deftly sketching portraits of the great commanders’ – Tom Pocock, Literary Review
‘A finely written and compelling narrative of wars, campaigns and battles, interspersed with politics and finance … Above all Padfield has provided us with a grand context in which to place these glorious campaigns. His battles are as well drawn as any in the canon, as befits an author rich in nautical experience, both practical and literary’ – Andrew Lambert, Naval Review
Peter Padfield was born in 1932 and trained as a Royal Navy Reserve cadet on HMS Worcester before transferring to commercial vessels. He later became a journalist and greatly-respected military/maritime historian and writer; he has also written novels. Peter Padfield lives in East Anglia.
Winner of the Mountbatten Maritime Prize, this is the second of Padfield’s masterful trilogy that traces the impact of naval power on modern history, and the means by which it has been enacted. The book combines vivid and engrossing descriptions of historically important events with careful analysis and intelligent discussion of the idea that maritime powers are fundamentally different – in attitude, behaviours and outcomes – to landlocked states.
Praise for Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom:
‘This is a colourful account of naval actions and, as such, it makes for superb reading, since the author is a consummate wordsmith’ – Paul Kennedy, Sunday Times
‘On naval warfare Padfield is masterly, splicing together the strategic, tactical, technological and social strands of his story with lively narrative, and deftly sketching portraits of the great commanders’ – Tom Pocock, Literary Review
‘A finely written and compelling narrative of wars, campaigns and battles, interspersed with politics and finance … Above all Padfield has provided us with a grand context in which to place these glorious campaigns. His battles are as well drawn as any in the canon, as befits an author rich in nautical experience, both practical and literary’ – Andrew Lambert, Naval Review
Peter Padfield was born in 1932 and trained as a Royal Navy Reserve cadet on HMS Worcester before transferring to commercial vessels. He later became a journalist and greatly-respected military/maritime historian and writer; he has also written novels. Peter Padfield lives in East Anglia.
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