In this outstanding book, naval historian Peter Padfield explores the ways in which maritime strength has influenced political power from the mid-nineteenth century to the modern age.
Freedom of expression and individual enterprise have distinguished the societies of powers dominant at sea; and since supreme maritime nations have prevailed over their territorial rivals in the great wars of the modern era, it is they who have created today’s world.
In this final volume of his masterful trilogy, Padfield carries the theme through the terrible wars of the last century to the present, with vivid descriptions of the naval battles that have shaped our world.

In Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom, Peter Padfield presents a superb description and analysis of naval campaigns, conducted between 1788 and 1851, that shaped the modern world.
Winner of the Mountbatten Maritime Prize, this is the second of Padfield’s masterful trilogy that traces the impact of naval power on modern history, and the means by which it has been enacted. The book combines vivid and engrossing descriptions of historically important events with careful analysis and intelligent discussion of the idea that maritime powers are fundamentally different-in attitude, behaviors and outcomes-to landlocked states.

In the great wars of modern history, maritime powers have always prevailed over land-based empires, whether Habsburg, Napoleonic, Nazi or Soviet.
In contrast to the rigid hierarchies and centralization of land-based empires, those nations attaining mastery at sea have been distinguished by liberty, flexibility, and enterprise. The seventeenth-century Dutch were the first to achieve naval and trading dominance and, exploring the effects on daily life, industry, art and thought, finance and power politics, Peter Padfield reveals the Dutch in their golden age as the heralds of modern Western society.
The British took over the Dutch system of naval, trading, and world supremacy in the eighteenth century and were, in their turn, displaced by the United States in the twentieth. This book carries the story from the defeat of the Armada in 1588 to the American Revolutionary War and Rodney’s victory.
Maritime Supremacy and the Opening of the Western Mind charts the growth of linked strengths-sea-fighting, trading, financial and constitutional-which made empires so formidable, and reveals how supremacy at sea freed thought and society itself.

Sweeping from the frigid waters of the North Atlantic to the steaming South Pacific, this riveting chronicle of submarine warfare is the first to cover all the major submarine campaigns of the war, describing, in detail, the operations of the British, American, Japanese, Italian, and German submarine and anti-submarine forces. Beginning with a vivid re-creation of the sinking of the passenger liner Athenia by a German U-boat in September 1939, critically acclaimed military historian Peter Padfield’s compelling narrative casts an unflinching eye on the devastating consequences of maritime warfare. The often harrowing encounters unfold with urgency and power, balanced by his keen sense of objectivity and perspective. Exploring the full spectrum of the submarine and anti-submarine warfare experience, this brilliantly detailed account pulls no punches. Facts and figures that stagger the imagination are revealed in starkly human terms, and disturbing questions abound. Padfield addresses the controversial issues raised with candor and insight, and the result is not only an impressive achievement but a milestone work in the history of the twentieth century.