The Price of Admiralty

This was one of John Keeegan's early classics. Like Face of Battle, this book closely analyses three distinct naval battles from history. The first chapter on Trafalgar is very appropriate for the recent 200th anniversary. The description of the planning, events leading up to and the action itself are first-rate. I doubt one could find a better account of this battle even with all the recent interest in Nelson and Trafalgar. Keegan excels in presenting clear and concise descriptions. For land-lubbers like me it was indeed pleasant not to be burdened with a lot of nautical terms which one expects with naval stuff. Keegan also excels in analysis and comparative studies. In this work you get a pretty good picture of how naval technology has developed from 1805 to 1945. Some generalizations are no doubt present, and for those more knowledgeable than myself in naval warfare I leave to them the details of correcting those mistakes. For the general reader of this subject this is a great work, and in keeping with Keegan's studies on warfare. This and his early work The Face of Battle completely revolutionized how warfare could be studied. Many since have used the systematic approach that Keegan first devised in these ground-breaking works. Keegan does not provide the minute detail on these battles that some might desire, but there is good, solid research and thought provoking statements on how each enegagement was unique for its time and place. He provides a chronological study of the development of warfare and shows us that examples from past and present each have their place in the understanding of military science. Even after 20 years, Keegan's work remains as fresh today as it down when first introduced. This is a classic study which will always have a place on one's shelf. Highly recommneded for the general reader as well as military history buff.

Keegan is one of those writers who has read and studied his subject vastly, but who is able, when necessary, to articulate his views with poinpoint precision. You never feel as if Keegan is making a throwaway generalization, and no words are wasted. Those skills and capacities he brings to his account of naval warfare since the days of fighting sail. In his first instalment, on Nelson's Trafalgar victory, he explains that naval warfare in 1805 had advanced to the same level of destructiveness as had land warfare in 1914, i.e., an appallingly high concentration of firepower over a small distance, matched only by the development of manoevre. On land, the solution was the tank; at sea, it was Nelson's method of all-or-nothing attack followed by envelopment. In other chapters we survey the Battle of Jutland (featuring some truly superb descriptions of the battleship duels), the struggle for the North Atlantic and the Battle of Midway. A brilliant essay not only for military enthusiasts but for anyone interested in general strategy.

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.

In history, many find facts and figures that seem to be meant to daunt the average reader into instantaneous boredom. But, with this book, not only is the reader given a grand veiw of formative battles in Naval warfare, but a magnificent stroll through history that promises to keep the reader enthralled in the material. Informing and entertaining at the same time. You are not just reading about the melee amongst the French, Spanish, and British ships off the Spanish coast in the Napoleonic Wars, but you are there, with Nelson as he is picked off by a French sniper in the rigging of the Redoutable. You are in one of the British battlecruisers as they charge in the infamous 'Death Ride' at Jutland, steeming into the jaws of the Devil himself. The reader is left excited, not comatose, drooling for more of what this writer has to offer and what history can teach them, not dry in the mouth and searching for a bed and pillow.