What do you think?
Rate this book
Maritime Supremacy #2
Maritime Power and Struggle for Freedom: Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World 1788-1851
The Mountbatten Maritime Prize-winning author of Maritime Supremacy provides a dramatic description of historical naval warfare combined with an analysis of the causes of victory, offering insight into how sea powers often prevailed over land-based empires. 17,500 first printing.
451 pages, Hardcover
First published July 17, 2003
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 13, 2025
A stunningly integrated history of the world between 1788-1851 at the broadest level, but especially of Britain, France, and, to a lesser extent, the United States during the years of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, 1789-1813.
In keeping with his first book, Maritime Supremacy, Padfield uses naval campaigns as the entry point for his history, given their decisive and often controlling influence on the course of global events. But this book focuses so, so much more than the Xs and Os of great battles at sea (though of course, those are included).
The overarching thread of the book, if there can be just one, is the dichotomy of Britain and France, of a maritime merchant nation and a territorial warrior one. Focusing on each country’s cultural, political, and economic traditions, Padfield helps explain why the British system was so nearly inevitable to succeed over the French, whose Revolution in 1789 was so regressively reversed in subsequent years in spite of the survival of its grand ideals (in theory only).
The grand dichotomy provides a deeply profound looking glass through which to understand America, the hegemonic inheritor to the British system, and much of the West at the turn of the 21st century when this was written. Passages on Japan, China, and other non-‘Western’ nations also illuminate more modern conceptions of them and their role in global affairs.
A note on just how integrated/interdisciplinary the history is: at various points and with remarkable fluency, it cites to — letters from ship captains and diaries of sailors; government bond rates in London and Paris; Romantic poetry and painting; maritime archaeological research; legislation and executive decrees; contemporary philosophy; commodity prices for grain, sugar, etc; and so on and so forth. The sourcing is nearly comprehensive.
It’s admittedly a somewhat heady book, and can on its face occasionally seem dry or academic, but Padfield’s sartorial British academic prose reads delightfully when fully understood. It’s a book that will live in my head for a long time.
In keeping with his first book, Maritime Supremacy, Padfield uses naval campaigns as the entry point for his history, given their decisive and often controlling influence on the course of global events. But this book focuses so, so much more than the Xs and Os of great battles at sea (though of course, those are included).
The overarching thread of the book, if there can be just one, is the dichotomy of Britain and France, of a maritime merchant nation and a territorial warrior one. Focusing on each country’s cultural, political, and economic traditions, Padfield helps explain why the British system was so nearly inevitable to succeed over the French, whose Revolution in 1789 was so regressively reversed in subsequent years in spite of the survival of its grand ideals (in theory only).
The grand dichotomy provides a deeply profound looking glass through which to understand America, the hegemonic inheritor to the British system, and much of the West at the turn of the 21st century when this was written. Passages on Japan, China, and other non-‘Western’ nations also illuminate more modern conceptions of them and their role in global affairs.
A note on just how integrated/interdisciplinary the history is: at various points and with remarkable fluency, it cites to — letters from ship captains and diaries of sailors; government bond rates in London and Paris; Romantic poetry and painting; maritime archaeological research; legislation and executive decrees; contemporary philosophy; commodity prices for grain, sugar, etc; and so on and so forth. The sourcing is nearly comprehensive.
It’s admittedly a somewhat heady book, and can on its face occasionally seem dry or academic, but Padfield’s sartorial British academic prose reads delightfully when fully understood. It’s a book that will live in my head for a long time.
November 20, 2017
This book is of two minds.
First, the author sets forth his view of history, which is that there have been two types of governments through history: autocratic centralized governments, which seek to control everything from the center and tend to be based in the center of the continent, and commercially-oriented republics, which evolve limited government and tend to be based on the periphery, from which point their ships can set forth on trading ventures.
It is an interesting thesis, though perhaps overstated. The distinction between commercial and autocratic, and land-based and maritime, is not always clear. There have been plenty of small, autocratic states located on the peripheries of civilization, where trading is necessary to survive, and some countries, such as China over much of its history and the United States during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, fill both roles. Also, commercial interests clearly are not all that has promoted naval power over the course of history. Countries such as Great Britain and the United States, which are separated from potential enemies by bodies of water, have more to gain by building up the navy, and concomitantly less need to make competing investments in land-based forces, allowing them to build up the navy even further. Still, I would say that the forces identified by Mr. Padfield have had a significant impact on world history.
The second part of this book tells the tale of the great naval battles during the apogee of the era of fighting sail (1788 - 1851). Though told many times before, it is a thrilling tale. The era of fighting sail is perhaps the most romantic and exciting period of naval history, and with material like that, the story practically tells itself.
First, the author sets forth his view of history, which is that there have been two types of governments through history: autocratic centralized governments, which seek to control everything from the center and tend to be based in the center of the continent, and commercially-oriented republics, which evolve limited government and tend to be based on the periphery, from which point their ships can set forth on trading ventures.
It is an interesting thesis, though perhaps overstated. The distinction between commercial and autocratic, and land-based and maritime, is not always clear. There have been plenty of small, autocratic states located on the peripheries of civilization, where trading is necessary to survive, and some countries, such as China over much of its history and the United States during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, fill both roles. Also, commercial interests clearly are not all that has promoted naval power over the course of history. Countries such as Great Britain and the United States, which are separated from potential enemies by bodies of water, have more to gain by building up the navy, and concomitantly less need to make competing investments in land-based forces, allowing them to build up the navy even further. Still, I would say that the forces identified by Mr. Padfield have had a significant impact on world history.
The second part of this book tells the tale of the great naval battles during the apogee of the era of fighting sail (1788 - 1851). Though told many times before, it is a thrilling tale. The era of fighting sail is perhaps the most romantic and exciting period of naval history, and with material like that, the story practically tells itself.
April 13, 2019
B: Outstanding book that integrates maritime history, both naval and mercantile, with social and political history. It reflects the good and the bad of slow social progress from the abolition of slavery to the competition between individual and state/societal rights; centralized and local authority. The introduction alone is an education on what we as a society right now are going through. Highly recommended.
April 18, 2024
Padfield continues his trilogy with an in-depth study of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, with brief asides on the War of 1812 and the First Opium War. He argues that Britain's maritime society produced greater wealth, freedom, and even art (aside from music).
December 2, 2020
Padfield presents a fascinating overview of history through the lens of naval power. The focus is in the struggle between mercantile Britain and agricultural France, especially events surrounding the French Revolution. I have read many books on this topic, but Maritime Power is one of the best and most insightful on this period and Britain’s rise to becoming a naval superpower.
July 16, 2015
Omamoodi tore raamat. Autor on ilmselgelt valdkonnaga kursis. AGA. Tüüp võtab raamatu aluseks teesi, et merd valitsev vabakaubanduslikult meelestatud riik on alati igas mõttes üle maapõhisest, agraarsetes traditsioonides kinni tsentraliseelitud despootlikust riigist. Ent selle asemel, et kenasti selle teesi tõestamisele asuda, raiskab kodanik kümneid lehekülgi laevalahingute kirjeldustele, mis on tihedalt täis pikitud merendusalast erialaterminoloogiat. Kohati on tunne, et üldpoliitilise alusega raamatu asemel tahtis härra tegelikult kirjutada hoopis võiduka Nelsoni võidukat biograafiat, Briti võiduka mereväe võidukate lahingute kirjeldusi ning Suurbritannia XVII/XVIII sajandi vägede, poliitika, ühiskonnakorralduse ja teadusarengute glorifikatsiooni, aga adus, et selliseid raamatuid on vist juba liiga palju välja antud. Ühesõnaga - kui poogiks välja kogu liigse sõnade vahu ja keskenduks alguses välja öeldud teesile, siis oleks täitsa kobe raamat ja väärt lausa 3-3,5 punni. Aga praegu - sadly, no.
Tl; dr: it was okay.
Tl; dr: it was okay.
May 9, 2013
An excellent history of Britain's entry into global maritime affairs and the conflicts between Nelson and Napoleon.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews