In a work of extraordinary narrative power, filled with brilliant
personalities and vivid scenes of dramatic action, Robert K.
Massie, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Peter the Great,
Nicholas and Alexandra, and Dreadnought, elevates to its proper
historical importance the role of sea power in the winning of the
Great War.
The predominant image of this first world war is of mud and
trenches, barbed wire, machine guns, poison gas, and slaughter. A
generation of European manhood was massacred, and a wound was
inflicted on European civilization that required the remainder of
the twentieth century to heal.
But with all its sacrifice, trench warfare did not win the war for
one side or lose it for the other. Over the course of four years,
the lines on the Western Front moved scarcely at all; attempts to
break through led only to the lengthening of the already unbearably
long casualty lists.
For the true story of military upheaval, we must look to the sea.
On the eve of the war in August 1914, Great Britain and Germany
possessed the two greatest navies the world had ever seen. When war
came, these two fleets of dreadnoughts--gigantic floating castles
of steel able to hurl massive shells at an enemy miles away--were
ready to test their terrible power against each other.
Their struggles took place in the North Sea and the Pacific, at the
Falkland Islands and the Dardanelles. They reached their climax
when Germany, suffocated by an implacable naval blockade, decided
to strike against the British ring of steel. The result was
Jutland, a titanic clash of fifty-eight dreadnoughts, each the home
of a thousand men.
When the German High Seas Fleet retreated, the kaiserunleashed
unrestricted U-boat warfare, which, in its indiscriminate violence,
brought a reluctant America into the war. In this way, the German
effort to "seize the trident" by defeating the British navy led to
the fall of the German empire.
Ultimately, the distinguishing feature of Castles of Steel is the
author himself. The knowledge, understanding, and literary power
Massie brings to this story are unparalleled. His portrayals of
Winston Churchill, the British admirals Fisher, Jellicoe, and
Beatty, and the Germans Scheer, Hipper, and Tirpitz are stunning in
their veracity and artistry.
"Castles of Steel is about war at sea, leadership and command,
courage, genius, and folly. All these elements are given
magnificent scope by Robert K. Massie's special and widely hailed
literary mastery.
"From the Hardcover edition.
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