Naval Warfare: A Global History since 1860

by Jeremy Black

The modern age of naval warfare began with the combination of steam power, iron warships, and modern artillery, which launched an intense period of international competition. Tracing naval warfare from the 1860s into the future, noted historian Jeremy Black provides a dynamic account of strategy and warfare worldwide. He focuses on the interplay of technological development, geopolitics, and resource issues to assess not only the role of leading powers but all those involved in naval conflict. Emphasizing conflict and changes since 1945 and, notably, since the end of the Cold War, the author considers possible future developments of navies, their challengers, and the geopolitics of maritime power.

Genres: History, Military Fiction, War

300 pages, Paperback

Published January 5, 2017

About the author

Jeremy Black is an English historian, who was formerly a professor of history at the University of Exeter. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.
Black is the author of over 180 books, principally but not exclusively on 18th-century British politics and international relations, and has been described by one commentator as "the most prolific historical scholar of our age". He has published on military and political history, including Warfare in the Western World, 1882–1975 (2001) and The World in the Twentieth Century (2002).

Reviews

[Vince · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reads like a college level text book and is very heavy on contextual analysis surrounding the building of navies around the globe. Black picks up at the dawn of the age of the ironclad and proceeds to walk through world history chronologically. The text does not focus on in depth analysis of weapon systems or battles but rather the consequences for those events. What did the HMS Dreadnought really mean for world navies? How has the role of nuclear powered submarines changed naval policy? These questions and many more are discussed throughout the book. At the end, Black speculates on the future of navies and how their role is constantly changing. I feel like it ties the book together very well and draws on lessons from each of the chapters. For whatever reason I had a hard time getting through the first chapter but it really picked up after that. Highly recommend reading.

[Christian Cederberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

General overview of naval warfare, without really going deep into things. Perhaps fine for a reader with little knowledge of naval warface, but not really interesting for the buff

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone playing Rule the Waves III; a must read. For everyone else; why would you?
Grognards only.

[Heinz Reinhardt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well written, very highly detailed (surprisingly considering the short length of the book), and highly analytical look at the global evolution of naval warfare from the introduction of the ironclads to speculation about the nature of future naval warfare, and the possibility of another great power naval struggle between the United States and the People's Republic of China.
While not a book marketed specifically to naval historians (my own thoughts was that the book was marketed to those less knowledgeable of naval warfare, so as to serve as a primer), this is a highly technical read. While this is interesting, I can easily see this turning off those who were looking for a straight narrative history of naval operations. However, to understand those operations, one needs to comprehend the technical evolution of naval vessels themselves and how operations are informed by naval doctrine, itself informed by the evolution of ships/weapons systems.
Where someone like me might be fascinated by the design of the HMS Dreadnought, or the Soviet Typhoon Class submarine, I doubt most people would be as enthralled.
Also, Jeremy Black decides to offer up precious little, if any, tactical details of the various naval battles mentioned. Granted, doing so would have exploded the length of the book, but most seekers into naval history are enthralled of gun duels, and carrier launches. And a little less so of maritime strategy and theories on power projection.
Despite that, however, the book does an excellent job of showcasing the primacy of the naval role to many conflicts as well as offering up sound analysis.
A brief tidbit I hadn't really considered: the potential of the United States as a naval superpower was previewed as far back as the Civil War, where the Confederacy displayed tremendous technical ingenuity to make up for scant resources, and northern industry and shipyards produced, by 1865, a truly mighty navy.
All in all, a very detailed and analytical, if somewhat dry, look at the evolution of naval warfare. Still well worth a read.