To Rule the Waves - How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World

To Rule the Waves - How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World

by Arthur Herman

Hodder, $150

With Britain all at sea over the anniversary of Trafalgar, it's worth reflecting on the contribution of the Royal Navy to world history. It's Arthur Herman's contention that our modern global trading system, with all its interdependencies, was created in the wake of Britain's ships. The defeat of Napoleon, and French aspirations for a global command economy, allowed the spread of liberal thought and rule of law wherever it dropped its sails. Herman starts with the destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1568 to that last, vicious, exchange with a Spanish descendant at the Falklands in 1982. Expensive technology has reduced the courage and audacity with which Britannia ruled the waves for a century to so much romantic grandeur. Herman also chronicles the feats of exploration carried out by the Royal Navy - among them James Cook - and the expansion of British economic activity that came with secure sea lanes. Herman, an American, has written a history of Britain's legacy against which the new world order must be measured.