Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom
by Peter Padfield
Naval campaigns that shaped the modern world (2)
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Description
This text charts the epic struggle between Great Britain and revolutionary and Napoleonic France, revealing both the hidden forces beneath the surface of events and the strategies and battle tactics which ensured Britain the final victory. In Maritime Supremacy and the Opening of the Western Mind, Peter Padfield covered the rise of the Dutch to supreme naval and commercial power in the 17th century and their displacement by the British, followed by the 18th-century struggle between Great show more Britain and Bourbon France. He now explores the contrasts between British power based on trade and sea control and French power based on territorial conquest, and shows how their respective societies were imprinted with irreconcilably different ways of thought and systems of government and finance. He presents the French Revolution and Napoleon in a radical light as essentially regressive, Britain, for better or worse, as the progressive herald of modern liberties. The reader is placed on the gun deck, amid the cannon, smoke, blood and death, or alongside the great leaders, Pitt, Nelson, Wellington or Napoleon Bonaparte. show lessTags
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Author Information
28 Works 1,313 Members
Peter Padfield's trilogy includes Maritime Power and Maritime, Supremacy, both published by Overlook. He was born in British India and served as a navigating officer in P0 liners to India and Australia. After producing an acclaimed life of Admiral Karl Donitz, he wrote biographies of two other Nazi leaders. His work as a naval historian received show more the Mountbatten Maritime Prize. show less
Awards and Honors
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom
- Original publication date
- 2005
- First words
- Introduction: In 'Maritime Supremacy and the Opening of the Western Mind' I suggested that we, the liberal western nations, are the heirs of maritime supremacy: that is to say, our beliefs and the present dominance of those ... (show all)beliefs throughout much of the world are the result, not of any natural progression of the human mind towards the rational or the good, but rather a consequence of the global distribution of sea and land masses which has conferred strategic advantage on powers able to use and dominate the seas.
1: The French Revolution is represented as a turning point in western civilization when the ideas of the 'Enlightenment' assumed political form. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The exhibition proved a huge success, drawing thousands of visitors from around the world. And if Queen Victoria's description of the opening on 1 May as 'the greatest day in our history' was influenced a little by pride in her beloved Albert, whose 'dearest name is immortalized with this great conception', when viewed objectively, the Great Exhibition can be seen as a demonstration of political freedom and the achievements of peace; hitherto Great Britain's historic triumphs had been on the seas and fields of war.
- Original language
- English
Classifications
- Genres
- History, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 909.09821081 — History & geography History World history Other Geographic Classifications Other Classifications Ocean And Sea Basins The West; the Atlantic region
- LCC
- D215 .P33 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania History (General) Modern history, 1453-
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 120
- Popularity
- 272,287
- Rating
- (4.25)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 3
