The Rise And Fall of British Naval Mastery
"As soon as it appeared in 1976, Paul M. Kennedy's magisterial survey of the historical role and significance of British seapower was recognized by serious naval historians as a work of the first importance. The book's publication in paperback provides an opportunity to recommend it to students of international relations, for its main objective is to place British naval power in broad geopolitical context. This is by far the most important survey of British naval history since Sir Herbert Richmond's Statesmen and Sea Power (1946) and in some ways it is more important."—International Historical Review