Why Does Naval History Matter? From the early sixteenth-century to the middle of the twentieth; England, then Great Britain, became a superpower.[1] Lambert explains “. . . one critical advantage: naval power”.[2] Contemporary writers put forward two arguments about British Naval history; the first is that Britain and especially its Navy founded the modern global system;[3] the second […]
Why Does Naval History Matter? As a student of history, I have often met with the question ‘but why does history matter?’ Naval history, a specialised and unique branch of academic study, is met with a stronger question about its relevance, even amongst historians, being dismissed as simply ships, scurvy and sea dogs. Naval history […]
Why Does Naval History Matter? The first question to consider before approaching a response to why naval history matters is: why does any history matter? Before the professionalization of the field in the nineteenth century, the answer to this question seemed fairly obvious; historians “took it for granted that history furnished the basis for a […]
