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Title: The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery by Paul M. Kennedy ISBN: 0-333-35094-4 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Pub. Date: 31 March, 1983 Format: Hardcover |
Average Customer Rating: 3.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Repetition - shame really
Comment: Kennedy, unfortunately, has extracted from his excelent 'Rise and Fall of the Great Powers' all of the 'bits' relating to the British Empire and expanded it somewhat in relation to the Royal Navy - but not much in the way of 'specialised' input.
I was very disappointed with this.
Rating: 2
Summary: Single Causitive Theory in Action
Comment: Paul Kennedy glosses over British naval ascendancy from pre-1600 to 1976. This is essentially an analysis in political economy, not military history. As usual, Kennedy maintains that the British fleet ruled the waves when their trade economy was on the rise (chiefly due to the headstart they got on industrialization) and declined with their relative decline in industrial productivity during 1890-1920. Issues like technological change, leadership or operational mistakes do not figure prominently in this account. The greatest British naval defeat in this period - the temporary loss of naval mastery off Yorktown in 1781, which led to American victory - had nothing to do with economics. Kennedy ignores the US fleet for the most part, such as the technological impact of the Civil War (e.g. the Monitor) and the US triumph in the Spanish-American War. There is a very blatant British bias here.
Kennedy glosses over the various wars between 1600 and 1945 with no new insights or useful analysis. Mahan is trashed, while Mackinder's "heartland" geopolitics are praised. Kennedy's tone almost implies that British naval and industrial decline was inevitable, yet he offers no opinions about what they might have done otherwise. The key challenge for Britain was to match commitments with resources and sustainable forces (the "two war" strategy for dealing with crises in Pacific and Mediterranean in 1930s is similar to current US "2MRC" strategic dilemma). Maps are crude.
Rating: 5
Summary: Interesting and well researched
Comment: Very well written and interesting. Not nearly as dry as I thought it'd be and it explained quite a bit as to the forces which led to the rise of Western Civ. Also possibly prophetic although some of Kennedy's statements here seem to contradict his very popular "Rise & Fall of the Great Powers". Read both & actually I prefer this book. A must read for anyone interested in rounding out their knowledge of Naval history or even general Western History, 1500 to present.
Kennedy does a superb job in documenting his information.
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