War at Sea in the Ironclad Age

I have seen a number of unfavorable reviews of this book, but after reading it, I think I can say that it really is pretty good, and when you consider how little there is available on the subject, and when you look at the price (I got mine for seven bucks used!), I see little cause for complaint! Well illustrated, with good reviews of the battles and main issues of the day, I think it is very good value for money! From a purely historical and literary aspect, I would have liked to have seen a lot more on the designs and designers of countries other than Britain (especially the French!), but as this era apparently has little interest for the French of today, and so few English-speaking authors and historians can be bothered to learn French, or any other 'foreign' language to do their own research, it is probable that this information will remain a mystery for many years to come. In any case, if you are interested in this era, and are not sure if you want to put down the big bucks for other books dealing with this subject (and at a hundred bucks a pop for some of these books, you had better be VERY interested!), then I can recommend this book wholeheartedly as an excellent primer!

Cassell has done a great service to readers with its new series on military history. Wonderfully illustrated, these books have a text written by leading historians. The problem with the series is that they are generally just over 200 pages and are so heavily illustrated that the text is rarely more than half that number. Since the books cover large chunks of military history (World War II in the East or War in the Air 1914-1945, for instance), they only appeal to the generalist, not someone widely read in the field (such as the two previous reviewers of this work who obviously are experts). There simply isn't the space to give more than a bare summary of events, no matter how well analyzed.It is for this reason that Admiral Hill has such a winner here for everyone except the extremely well-read navalist. The ironclad era was the most traumatic time in naval history as navies tried to cope with revolutionary technology. Because naval battles were so rare in this era, the period tends to be overlooked. Although I am fairly well read in military history, this book was, for me, chock full of new and important information. It is well organized and makes very clear why forgotten battles like Lissa, forgotten ships like Huascar and forgotten men like Jules Ferry were important.It has a few mistakes - Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican and the new navy was far advanced when he came on the scene - and sometimes spends too much time on peripheral issues - the naval brigades of the Boer War fought on land as army troops, so they should not have had several pages devoted to them. But the excellent text and the wonderful drawings, photos, maps and charts make this an important work. There are few surveys on this most important era of naval warfare. Anyone with the slightest interest in naval or technological history would be well advised to buy this book.