The Line Upon a Wind: The Great War at Sea, 1793-1815 | 
 enlarge | Author: Noel Mostert
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 76706
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st American Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 800
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.8
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 2.2
ISBN: 0393066533
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.2745
EAN: 9780393066531
ASIN: 0393066533
Publication Date: July 28, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Product Description
The thrilling story of Britain's death-struggle with Revolutionary France, wherein Napoleon is checkmated by Nelson's brilliant naval exploits.
In February 1793 France declared war on Britain, and for the next twenty-two years the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars raged. This was to be the longest, cruelest war ever fought at sea, comparable in scale only to the Second World War. New naval tactics were brought to bear, along with such unheard-of weapons as rockets, torpedoes, and submarines. The war on land saw the rise of the greatest soldier the world had ever known—Napoleon Buonaparte—whose vast ambition was thwarted by a genius he never met in person or in battle: Admiral Horatio Nelson.
Noel Mostert's narrative ranges from the Mediterranean to the West Indies, Egypt to Scandinavia, showing how land versus sea was the key to the outcome of these wars. He provides details of ship construction, tactics, and life on board. Above all he shows us the extraordinary characters that were the raw material of Patrick O'Brian's and C. S. Forester's magnificent novels. 16 pages of illustrations, 6 maps.
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excellent naval history September 4, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is certainly one of the best and most complete histories of the war at sea in the Napoleonic Age. To find more detail, you'd need to go to a specialized book--such as Schom's book on Trafalgar or Dudley Pope's fine The Black Ship about the Hermione mutiny. There are books that contain some helpful maps--Line Upon the Wind has a few, but not enough, and so it would be useful for you to have at hand, say, Lambert's fine War at Sea in the Age of Sail, which has lots of beautifully drawn full-color diagrams of battles.
I don't think I've ever encountered a greater breadth of coverage for this era: I enjoy good naval histories, and I enjoy novels--particularly Dewey Lambdin's wonderful Lewrie series. But Line Upon the Wind has stories I've never read before. As an example, in Antigua in 1798 the senior captain sailed off, leaving behind two lieutenants who didn't like each other. Both felt that authority had devolved upon them (the departing captain had neglected to specify who would be in charge). One was further up the seniority list, the other was a lord. Both issued orders to the other, and the lord shot and killed the other lieutenant for mutiny (and survived a court-martial). This is small stuff, to be sure, in the sweep and grandeur of the period, and is ignored (as far as I know) in other histories. But it provides an evocative insight into the mindsets of the Royal Navy and its officers. There are many similar stories as well. So you get a superb breadth of view of the period, but you also get a lot of detail, particularly with the men and the personalities, and the combination makes a great addition to your history shelf.
For some additional reading that will supplement this book, I'd suggest:
1) Pivka's Navies of the Napoleonic Era: great technical detail.
2) Goodwin's The Ships of Trafalgar: histories, diagrams of ships.
3) Lavery's Nelson's Navy. Ships, men, organization.
4) Tunstall's Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail: fighting tactics.
It's a fascinating period, and Line Upon the Wind serves it well!
A cogent, thoughtful history of a great naval war July 27, 2008
25 out of 25 found this review helpful
Noel Moestert's "The Line Upon a Wind: the Great War at Sea, 1793-1815" is a massive (over 700 pages of text) account of the nautical side of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (with American War of 1812 as well), extending from the first action between French and British frigates in June, 1793 all the way to the bombardment of Algiers in 1816. In between, Mostert describes in considerable detail all the numerous great battles that occurred, plus a fair smattering of the smaller actions scattered across the globe, all of this presented in a cogent manner, with well-considered analysis of how and why these events happened. He provides a brief, but informative survey of naval history of the centuries before the Great War and also relates the naval activities, which are his primary focus, to the progress of the land war and the complex diplomatic maneuvering which lay below everything.
Mostert's two great actors are Napoleon Bonaparte and Horatio Nelson, and he takes pains to explore how the personalities of both men did so much to shape events. But this does not mean that Mostert's book loses focus after Nelson's death at Trafalgar half-way through the Great War; instead, the author carries on to the end of hostilities and integrates the events of the War of 1812 into his larger story.
Mostert makes generous use of lengthy, even multi-page excerpts from first-hand accounts to make his narrative more vivid. Usually, these accounts come not from the admirals in command, but from ordinary seamen and officers caught up in events. And frequently these accounts illuminate not grand famous battles, but minor occurrences that would otherwise be overlooked. With this technique, the author not only gives life to his narrative, but also creates a more complete portrait of the war at sea and the peculiar culture of its combatants.
My only substantial criticism of the book is that it cries out for more maps. Although the battle of Trafalgar is depicted through multiple maps, such complex actions as the Nile and Copenhagen have no maps whatsoever. And readers must at least occasionally have recourse to their atlases to sort out the geographic subtleties of some of Mostert's narrative. As for the illustrations other than maps, they are not very informative and their captions contain startling errors (I suspect that the publisher rather than the author bears the blame).
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