Seapower States: Maritime Culture, Continental Empires and the Conflict That Made the Modern World

One of the most eminent historians of our age investigates the extraordinary success of five small maritime statesA superb survey of the perennial opportunities and risks in what Herman Melville called the watery part of the world.William Anthony Hay, Wall Street JournalAndrew Lambert, author of The Challenge: Britain Against America in the Naval War of 1812winner of the prestigious Anderson Medalturns his attention to Athens, Carthage, Venice, the Dutch Republic, and Britain, examining how their identities as seapowers informed their actions and enabled them to achieve success disproportionate to their size.Lambert demonstrates how creating maritime identities made these states more dynamic, open, and inclusive than their lumbering continental rivals. Only when they forgot this aspect of their identity did these nations begin to decline. Recognizing that the United States and China are modern naval powersrather than seapowersis essential to understanding current affairs, as well as the longterm trends in world history. This volume is a highly original big think analysis of five states whose successand eventual failureis a subject of enduring interest, by a scholar at the top of his game.