The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy

Book excerpt: Throughout its history the Royal Navy has been of great importance for the defense of Britain and has over the centuries entrenched itself in the national psyche, making itself manifest not only through the hero-worship of its principal characters such as Horatio Nelson and Sir Francis Drake but also finding expression through art, music, and literature. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy is the definitive one-volume history of the Royal Navy. The text has now been updated for this paperback edition to cover more recent events and developments, covering every aspect of naval history from the Anglo-Saxon period to the dawn of the new millennium, including terrorist attacks on New York and Washington and the subsequent retaliation on terrorist bases in Afghanistan. With a full chronology, which has been brought up to date to the end of 2001, and an extensive list of further reading, this highly illustrated reference book gives an authoritative and highly readable account of a unique fighting service and its people.