|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
- D.E. Showalter, U.S. Air Force Acad., Colorado Springs
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Queen Victoria was mostly German. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant Biography as History, but Not for Everyone,
By
This review is from: Dreadnought (Paperback)
At over 1,000 oversize pages, this book is not for everyone. But if you enjoy biography (especially) and the history of sea power, politics and the Great War (here, its long run-up), this book is for you. If Carlyle was right that history is the "essence of innumerable biographies," Massie has caught the essence grandly with his sweeping Dreadnought. The title is misleading: one expects a dry tome about the British Dreadnought class. The massive turbine-powered war ships were to dominate navies until World War II, making coal irrelevant, and are expounded along with British naval politics and history, at length. But here Massie uses the Dreadnought as metaphor -- of sea power, arms race and ineluctable Armageddon. German and British players brilliantly counterpoise. Here is Emperor William II, grandson to Victoria, a man who walked with "the stiff stride of a Prussian officer; if he laughs, he will laugh with absolute abandonment...small, handsome, with clear blue eyes...a brushy upturned mustache... and withered left arm". Here is Edward VII, the Kaiser's Uncle Bertie, "tum tum" in his circle (but never to his face), the son of Victoria and the sainted Albert. It was the wonderfully bizarre Jacky Fisher, father of the Dreadnought, "greatest Admiral since Nelson" who had the King's ear. Massie implicitly raises questions of whether French entente would have happened if Bertie had not so insisted on his regular visits to Paris and Biarritz or if the Dreadnoughts, had they not Edward's exuberant approval, would have impelled the deadly race. The "lesser" characters in this drama serve their turns well. The "Blood and Iron" Chancellor Bismarck, a massive but dwindling figure, is deposed by the Kaiser, who disastrously takes the reins of the foreign ministry ("I am the foreign policy of Germany...May your government never forget that..." to Edward). The slippery Chancellor von Bulow who with the fork-bearded von Tirpitz, authors the Weltmacht (world power) policy. Lord Salisbury, three times Prime Minister, 6 feet 4, with his "huge head and slitted eyes," the author of the discarded dream of "Splendid Isolation", telling the German ambassador in 1888, "Nous sommes des poissons" (we are fish). After the crest of victory in the brutal Boer War, the ancient Queen finally dead, "so little - and so light" is gently lifted by the new King and the Kaiser into her coffin. Fisher does his job as First Sea Lord, surprisingly, under successive Liberal governments, including that of the brilliant, adulterous Asquith and the indispensable Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty: "for consider these ships (the superdreadnoughts)...so easily lost to sight on the surface of the waters....On them, as we conceived, floated the might, majesty, dominion and power of the British Empire." Each character and his role in the drama is brilliantly realized by Massie's incise mini-biographies. The final elegaic and compelling chapters dwell on the pathos between Berlin and London: of a Kaiser gone slightly mad in Berlin, while thousands cheer in London; Asquith bound to France "by honor if not obligation", the tragic Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey to Commons: "Today it is clear that the peace of Europe cannot be preserved." The unpoetic Grey, looking down at dusk at the lamps being lit in St. James's Park, uttered the lines that define what was to come: "The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime." This is almost as fine a biography qua history as we have. Read it with Tuchman's Guns of August and your pick of Great War histories.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as I expected from this author,
By C. J. Thompson "Arctic John" (Pond Inlet, Nunavut Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Dreadnought (Paperback)
I think Robert Massie is a great writer. His epic history, Peter the Great, reads like a novel and, because I so enjoyed that book, I bought his Nicholas and Alexandra and was delighted with it as a gripping read even though the biographies of these two individuals have never been of especial interest to me.I bought 'Dreadnought' expecting a comprehensive, well-researched history written in the same lively style I have come to expect from Massie. Unfortunately, although I have no doubt that this lengthy (900 odd pages) tome is thoroughly researched, the writing is often dense, dry and, ultimately, not a particularly good read. I bought the book in hopes of yet another 'meaty' history I could sink my teeth into but the Massie 'magic' was not there and, sad to say, I put the book down after 250 pages. Perhaps I will take another stab at it sometime but... probably not. Because of my expectations, I was very disappointed by this book. I am not sure exactly why Massie could not entertain me as he has in the past but I suspect that the nature of the history did not fit with his special talent. In 'Peter the Great' and 'Nicholas and Alexandra' we have stories that focus on just a few main characters and the histories, rich and detailed as they are, revolve around the central focus in a way that reads very easily. In 'Dreadnought' there is no central anchor and the result, for me at least, is far less engaging than the very personal 'stories' of his other works. I am sure that readers with a special interest in pre-WWI naval history will love this work, but for more casual readers (like myself) who are looking for a more general historical entertainment, the book will not likely be very satisfying.... A shame, really!
5.0 out of 5 stars
An epic of immense proportions.,
By Ned Middleton (British professional underwater photo-journalist & author) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)
This review is from: Dreadnought (Paperback)
It was the First World War - known at that time as "The Great War" which changed Britain and Europe forever. As the Generals on both sides sent millions and millions of men to their deaths in the carnage which they regarded as warfare, there came about a change in the psyche of the British male - a change which would herald a complete alteration in the way he thought and acted towards those of the upper, ruling classes. No longer would that British male be so quick to use such words as "M'Lord" or even "Sir." No longer would he doff his cap as a mark of respect, no longer would the ordinary police Constable be so quick to "arrest that man" just because a well dressed person had ordered him so to do.That change in British Society continues to this day and is easily traced back to the feelings of loss and despair which came with the realisation that far too many young men had died "at the front" - even though the war itself had been won and mainland Britain had escaped unscathed. In this epic tale, author Robert Massie delves deep into why that war occurred in the first place. Every single aspect of argument and behaviour on both sides (both military and political) is exposed and analysed. As the title of the book would suggest, the theme is the world's first great arms race. When Britain produced the first Dreadnought Battleship it rendered all other battleships obsolete at a stroke (including the remainder of the British Fleet!). From that moment onwards it was always a question of who could produce the most new Dreadnoughts in the quickest possible time. Set against this wish by both Britain and Germany to be seen as the world's supreme masters of the seas was a political intrigue which few have been able to commit to print in such a masterly fashion as is found in this book. In short, this is one of the greatest books of our time. It is also a damn fine read. NM
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Political
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Royalty
- Books > History > Americas > United States > 20th Century > World War I
- Books > History > Europe > Germany
- Books > History > Military > World War I
- Books > History > United States > 20th Century > World War I
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
|
