The Price of Victory
A Naval History of Britain: 1815 - 1945
Published on 28. May 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
976 pages
978-0-14-028897-1 (ISBN)
Description
The final instalment of N.A.M. Rodger's definitive, authoritative trilogy on Britain's naval history
At the end of the French and Napoleonic wars, British sea-power was at its apogee. But by 1840, as one contemporary commentator put it, the Admiralty was full of 'intellects becalmed in the smoke of Trafalgar'. How the Royal Navy reformed and reinvigorated itself in the course of the nineteenth century is just one thread in this magnificent book, which refuses to accept standard assumptions and analyses.
All the great actions are here, from Navarino in 1827 (won by a daringly disobedient Admiral Codrington) to Jutland, D-Day, the Battle of the Atlantic and the battles in the Pacific in 1944/45 in concert with the US Navy. The development and strategic significance of submarine and navy air forces is superbly described, as are the rapid evolution of ships (from classic Nelsonic type, to hybrid steam/sail ships, then armour-clad and the fully armoured Dreadnoughts and beyond) and weapons. The social history of officers and men - and sometimes women - always a key part of the author's work, is not neglected.
Rodger sets all this in the essential context of politics and geo-strategy. The character and importance of leading admirals - Beatty, Fisher, Cunningham - is assessed, together with the roles of other less famous but no less consequential figures. Based on a lifetime's learning, it is the culmination of one of the most significant British historical works in recent decades.
Naval specialists will find much that is new here, and will be invigorated by the originality of Rodger's judgements; but everyone who is interested in the one of the central threads in British history will find it rewarding.
At the end of the French and Napoleonic wars, British sea-power was at its apogee. But by 1840, as one contemporary commentator put it, the Admiralty was full of 'intellects becalmed in the smoke of Trafalgar'. How the Royal Navy reformed and reinvigorated itself in the course of the nineteenth century is just one thread in this magnificent book, which refuses to accept standard assumptions and analyses.
All the great actions are here, from Navarino in 1827 (won by a daringly disobedient Admiral Codrington) to Jutland, D-Day, the Battle of the Atlantic and the battles in the Pacific in 1944/45 in concert with the US Navy. The development and strategic significance of submarine and navy air forces is superbly described, as are the rapid evolution of ships (from classic Nelsonic type, to hybrid steam/sail ships, then armour-clad and the fully armoured Dreadnoughts and beyond) and weapons. The social history of officers and men - and sometimes women - always a key part of the author's work, is not neglected.
Rodger sets all this in the essential context of politics and geo-strategy. The character and importance of leading admirals - Beatty, Fisher, Cunningham - is assessed, together with the roles of other less famous but no less consequential figures. Based on a lifetime's learning, it is the culmination of one of the most significant British historical works in recent decades.
Naval specialists will find much that is new here, and will be invigorated by the originality of Rodger's judgements; but everyone who is interested in the one of the central threads in British history will find it rewarding.
Reviews / Votes
NAM Rodger knows more about the history of the Royal Navy, and thus in large measure about the history of Britain, than any other living person. [This] third and final volume of his history of the service since the 16th century confirms his absolute mastery of the great story * The Times, Best Non-Fiction Books of the 21st Century * Majestic ... This third volume, delayed by serious illness, brings us up to date and completes an achievement that is unlikely to be repeated, certainly not with such breadth, scholarship and wit. Rodger shows in gripping detail the ingenuity and assiduity that eventually made the navy into such a formidable fighting force, able to operate all over the world and embark on long and gruelling tours of duty -- Ferdinand Mount * London Review of Books * Nicholas Rodger is our foremost naval historian ... At last, with The Price of Victory, NAM Rodger's great history of naval warfare is complete - and this final volume is a fascinating triumph -- Simon Heffer * Telegraph * Within Rodger's pages is everything you will ever need to know about the evolution of warships and their weapons across a century and a half. Throughout, the author is clear-sighted about the over-rigid exercise of command at sea ... Rodger writes with such authority [and] pays just tribute to the contribution of the women of the Women's Royal Naval Service -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times * Erudite, engaging ... The Price of Victory covers the most densely studied period of naval history in Britain and beyond. This book, and the trilogy that it completes, are testimony to the dedication of a great scholar... As post-Brexit Britain ponders the obvious question of where next, this timely text emphasizes the critical place of the sea and the Navy in the making of the modern state. Rodger has completed a majestic trilogy, one that stretches back to the time when King Alfred first put to sea to stop Viking invaders, with an incisive, compelling assessment of an era that began with Britain at the peak of its relative power, shaping the defeat of Napoleon and a new European system, and ended with the defeat of fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and imperial Japan [and] continue[s] the argument into the present. -- Andrew Lambert * Times Literary Supplement * Magisterial ... a very considerable and scholarly work of synthesis which will provide a baseline for future work on Britain and its naval history for a generation or more -- Jonathan Boff * Spectator * The Price of Victory: A naval history of Britain 1815-1945 is the third and final volume of a thirty-year enterprise telling the story of our country and her navy. This one covers the period when Britannia really did rule the waves globally, and masters logistics as well as strategy. -- Andrew Roberts * Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year * We have waited 20 years for the final instalment of Rodger's trilogy on the naval history of Britain from the seventh century to the 20th ... it [is] just as thrilling as the two previous volumes -- Yuan Yu Zhi * History Today, Books of the Year * This mighty book, the concluding volume of a trilogy chronicling the history of the Royal Navy, is the size of an aircraft carrier. Covering the years 1815-1945, Volume III weighs in at nearly 1,000 pages. Max Hastings is right to describe it as a "great work", full of "unfamiliar facts and magisterial judgments" -- Robbie Millen * Saturday Times * The Price of Victory is the third and final volume of Rodger's great history of British sea power. It covers a period of astonishing modernisation from just after Nelson to the end of the Second World War. Sail is replaced by steam; timber by steel; "rum, sodomy and the lash" and the press gang give way to a volunteer Navy, albeit one whose officers are lacking until training becomes more sophisticated. Rodger stresses the paradox that early 19th-century statesmen "were at pains to avoid" the idea of empire, yet the empire was what the Navy helped to build and secure. Submarines and the Fleet Air Arm arrived, and by the 1940s the Navy could act effectively with American allies in the Pacific - and to defend Britain in the Battle of the Atlantic. -- Simon Heffer * Telegraph, Book of the Year *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 47 mm
Weight
694 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-14-028897-1 (9780140288971)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
10/2024
Penguin Books Ltd
€14.99
Available for download
Person
N. A. M. Rodger is Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and former Professor of Naval History at the University of Exeter. He has been awarded the Julian Corbett Prize in Naval History, the Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature, the British Academy Book prize, the Hattendorf Prize, and the Caird Medal of the National Maritime Museum.