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This book, first published in 1977, presents a comprehensive survey of the upheavals experienced in warfare from 1793 to the end of the twentieth century, a period that saw many fundamental changes - from the Napoleonic wars to the advent of total war, guerrilla and nuclear warfare. It discusses in detail the main aspects of warfare - battles, weapons, and people. It concentrates equally on all three, not emphasising one aspect at the expense of the others, and allowing cross-references between them so as to fit them into the general pattern of development. Also included are other factors essential to an understanding of modern warfare, such as technological items, and conceptual entries such as basic strategy and tactics, and various military theories and principles.

About the Author; Dedication; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; List of Illustrations; Preface; 1 The Origins of the Pre-Dreadnought Era; 2 The Pre-Dreadnought Era in the 1890s; 3 The New Navies of the 1890s; 4 Fisher and the Dreadnought; 5 The Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine); 6 The Politics and Diplomacy of Naval Policy; 7 From Dreadnoughts to Super-Dreadnoughts; 8 The Worldwide Dreadnought Arms Race; 9 World War I to Jutland; 10 From Jutland to Washington; Appendix; Notes; Bibliography.

A reappraisal of the late Victorian Navy, the so-called 'Dark Ages', showing how the period was crucial to the emergence of new technology defined by steel and electricity. In purely naval terms, the period from 1889 to 1906 is often referred to (and indeed passed over) as the 'pre-Dreadnought era', merely a prelude to the lead-up to the First World War, and thus of relatively little importance; it has therefore received little consideration from historians, a gap which this book remedies by reviewing the late Victorian Navy from a radically new perspective. It starts with the Great Near East crisis of 1878 and shows how its aftermath in the Carnarvon Commission and its evidence produced a profound shift in strategic thinking, culminating in the Naval Defence Act of 1889; this evidence, from the ship owners, provides the definitive explanation of why the Victorian Navy gave up on convoy as the primary means of trade protection in wartime, a fundamental question at the time. The book also overturns many assumptions about the era, especially the perception that the navy was weak, and clearly shows that the 1870s and early 1880s brought in crucial technological developments that made the Dreadnought possible