Naval and Military Essays
Being Papers read in the Naval and Military Section at the International Congress of Historical Studies, 1913

Essays on naval and military history, focusing on the value to contemporary officers of such historical analyses.

Julian Stafford Corbett (Author)

9781108003490, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 July 2009

260 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.5 cm, 0.34 kg

As Europe was poised on the cusp of the Great War (1914–1918), issues of national defence were of paramount concern. Despite the importance to German security of concentrating its resources on continental defence within Europe, the preceding years had been steeped in the cult of the navy. Germany's daunting pursuit of Weltpolitik had raised a serious challenge to traditional British naval hegemony. At issue were the future course of international relations, economic development and, crucially, the balance of power on both regional and global scales. Published in early 1914, some papers in this volume reviewed historic contributions of the British navy, offering a timely opportunity to formulate a better understanding of how the navy might be expected to perform in the future. The contents are evenly divided between essays on naval and military history, with the value of such historical analyses to contemporary officers being an explicit theme throughout.

Part I. Naval: 1. Historians and naval history John K. Laughton
2. Staff histories Julian S. Corbett
3. Naval history from the naval officer's point of view H. W. Richmond
4. Samuel Pepys as a naval officer J. R. Tanner
6. Naval history and the necessity of a catalogue of sources Alfred Dewar
Appendix
Part II. Military: 7. The difficulties encountered in compiling military history Lonsdale Hale
8. The value of studying military history as training for command in war F. B. Maurice
9. The practical application of military history N. Malcolm
10. Precis of the plans of Napoleon for the autumn campaign of 1813 J. Holland Rose
11. The influence of tactical ideas on warfare L. S. Amery
12. Field Marshal Prince Schwarzenberg: a character sketch J. F. Novak
13. A defence of military history C. W. C. Oman
14. Foreign regiments in the British service, 1793-1815 C. T. Atkinson
Index.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW]