At War at Sea

Spector tells the story of naval warfare in the twentieth century from the Russo-Japanese War to the Gulf, with an emphasis on the experience of the sailors themselves. Alongside the battles, he looks at life aboard ships, the effect of new technology, and how men coped with long periods of boredom broken by sudden violence.

It is a social history of navies as much as an operational one, which makes it distinctive. Readers who know the great battles will find new angles here, and those new to naval history get a clear, humane overview of how war at sea changed across a century.