In purely naval terms; the period from 1889 to 1906 is often referred to (and indeed passed over) as the `pre-Dreadnought era'; merely a prelude to the lead-up to the First World War; and thus of relatively little importance; it has therefore received little consideration from historians; a gap which this book remedies by reviewing the late Victorian Navy from a radically new perspective. It starts with the Great Near East crisis of 1878 and shows how its aftermath in the Carnarvon Commission and its evidence produced a profound shift in strategic thinking; culminating in the Naval Defence Act of 1889; this evidence; from the ship owners; provides the definitive explanation of why the Victorian Navy gave up on convoy as the primary means of trade protection in wartime; a fundamental question at the time. The book also overturns many assumptions about the era; especially the perception that the navy was weak; and clearly shows that the 1870s and early 1880s brought in crucial technological developments that made the Dreadnought possible.
#1633911 in Books Osprey 2003-06-20 2003-06-20Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.87 x .14 x 7.23l; .37 #File Name: 184176500748 pagesReference Book
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. This slim volume gives a nice account of the British MTBBy dcastroThis slim volume gives a nice account of the British MTB. There's a lot of photos with very nice illustrations and it is an excellent reference aid to building models. The only thing I wish there were more of is illustrations of different colour schemes in the 72.5 ft boats0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Short and concise; but possibly not enough detailBy B. Michael ShimminThe Vanguard series of books on naval classes are generally quite good in that they give quite a lot of technical and career history of the individual vessels; and while this works quite well for less well known vessels such as heavy and light cruisers it is perhaps less successful when applied to major surface units such as British Battlecruisers; all of which had a long history and lots of technical modifications (although clearly not sufficient in the case of the Hood) prior to 1939. The photographs are good but the artists impressions less so particularly as there exists a vast amount of photographs of these famous ships which could have been used instead.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Four StarsBy CustomerGood book.
