{"id":23397,"date":"2024-09-25T07:34:59","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T06:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=23397"},"modified":"2024-09-29T21:13:25","modified_gmt":"2024-09-29T20:13:25","slug":"books-sadeguard-of-the-sea-n-a-m-rodger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=23397","title":{"rendered":"MEDiA\/BOOK REVIEW: Safeguard of The Sea, N. A. M. Rodger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Wow!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I finished this last night. When I say \u2018finished\u2019, what I actually mean is that I read up to the Conclusion. There\u2019s a huge amount of additional material – chronology, notes to the main text, glossary, lists of ships – that I haven\u2019t read in full.*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s my personal view that it\u2019d be churlish to give this any less than five stars. It\u2019s an astonishing feat, at least to my mind. I\u2019m no expert on naval history of any kind. But it\u2019s clear that the two volumes I\u2019ve so far read – by accident I came to volume two, The Command of The Ocean<\/em>, first – are the product of immense research and sharp perceptive intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And to write such weighty tomes on a specialist subject in such a way as to engage the lay reader, such as myself, is in itself no mean feat. I\u2019ve thoroughly enjoyed volumes one and two. Such that I can\u2019t wait for volume three; The Cost of Victory<\/em>, due out very soon, this Autumn, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these works, Rodger gives us an astonishingly formidable synthesising history of the many threads that combine to tell the fascinating naval tales of these isles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe I detect more than a faint whiff of modern day(-ish) Conservatism, in Rodger\u2019s accounts of British politics. But that\u2019s fine. Indeed, in my experience the vast majority of what one might broadly refer to as \u2018military history\u2019 seems the preserve, by and large, of right leaning types (think Andrew Roberts, for example).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I grow older I find it harder and harder to position myself, politically. As nothing out there accords with my own personal pot-pourri of views. I say views rather than beliefs deliberately. Both can and should change, as we learn more. But views are, perhaps, more easily changed than beliefs. Anyway, I digress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vols I & II, of this mighty work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I needn\u2019t entirely concur with the authors\u2019 own politics – and as far as I can judge this is an admirably balanced account – to enjoy and benefit from his erudition and insight. And I\u2019ve found reading volumes II and I – I put it that way \u2019cause that\u2019s the order in which I read them – hugely enjoyable, and very informative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both books use a form of treatment that I ought to be able to recapitulate easily, but – I\u2019m currently both ill with a cold and recovering from a bout of depression – find myself a little foggy on. What I\u2019m alluding to is how he organises the vast inchoate masses of information he must necessarily marshal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s kind of cyclic, but not rigidly formulaic: he usually commences with \u2018operations\u2019, the action (this is the largest category, I reckon); sometimes he\u2019ll address the technology, in \u2018ships\u2019; then there\u2019s \u2018admin\u2019, the Pepysian dimension; and lastly, \u2018social history\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way Rodger uses these organising categories is, in my view, exemplary. They help him arrange and convey the necessary information. But he uses them in varied and fluid form; not slavishly, but rather in accordance with the shifting shoals of his subject. It really is masterfully done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he\u2019s an excellent writer. In the fields (seas and skies) of military history writing – and Rodger\u2019s monumental work is far more than purely military\/naval – there are many authors who either have very obvious axes to grind, or whose specialist knowledge is impressive, but whose general writing skills are less so. Happily, Rodger\u2019s prose is lucid, cogent, and engaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Inevitably, given the huge scope of these works, there\u2019s repetition, or perhaps what feels<\/em> like repetition, as he returns to how different players reprise the constant but evolving themes of sea-power. That he keeps it all fresh enough to make a vivacious and engaging read is, even if these works boasted just that one accomplishment, frankly astonishing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s far better than that. The enormous sweep of it all – it has to take in everything, touching on politics, agriculture, industry, war, peace, individuals, society, you name it, and not just within the British Isles, but also all those nations and peoples the seas have connected us to, through time – is constantly leavened and enlivened, by character observations and anecdotes, keeping the whole story warmly human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all these reasons and more, both this and volume two are very much five star fare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I haven\u2019t even really discussed the specific content, yet. And frankly, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s even entirely necessary. Suffice to say that he chooses to start in 660, and work his way to 1649, during the ECW. So, covering here a period just shy of a millennia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We witness an ebb and flow that is neither regular nor inevitable, as – and I\u2019ll let him say it, as he does so so very eloquently and succinctly – \u2018the peoples of the British Isles learnt, relearnt, or did not learn at all how to use the sea for their own defence.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Next on deck?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m very lucky, in that I have a beautiful Folio edition of this brilliant author\u2019s earlier work, The Wooden World<\/em>, which I can now read, whilst I eagerly await publication of the third volume of his truly awesome trilogy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can\u2019t recommend these books highly enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*I often referred to the notes and glossary, and occasionally perused random bits of the other sections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow! I finished this last night. When I say \u2018finished\u2019, what I actually mean is that I read up to the Conclusion. There\u2019s a huge amount of additional material – chronology, notes to the main text, glossary, lists of ships – that I haven\u2019t read in full.* It\u2019s my personal view that it\u2019d be churlish … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MEDiA\/BOOK REVIEW: Safeguard of The Sea, N. A. M. Rodger”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-65n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23397"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23397"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23560,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23397\/revisions\/23560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}