Each of John Keegan's books has revolutionized military history and deepened our understanding of human combat. His intent, whether studying generals or foot soldiers, has always been to explore, over changing times, the nature of the individual's experience of warfare.

In The Price of Admiralty, Keegan illuminates the history of naval conflict as it has evolved from Nelson's day until our own, offering a brilliant dissection of four landmark sea battles, each featuring a different form of warship: the Battle of Trafalgar, a conflict of wooden ships of the line; the Battle of Jutland in World War I with its ironclad steamships, the ponderous dreadnoughts; the Battle of Midway in World War II, the last great surface-ship battle, in which aircraft carriers proved the key players; and the long, arduous Battle of the Atlantic, which saw the submarine emerge as the last major—and ultimately most significant—technological transformation in naval operations.

The Price of Admiralty recounts how each new advance in warship technology irrevocably altered the face of naval conflict—the tactics and strategy necessary for offensive and defensive maneuvers, the role of commanders, and, most important, the daily and operational routines of the men aboard. And finally, the author closes with a sobering vision of the naval arsenals of the two superpowers today, and suggests how our nuclear navies—now custodians of truly earthshaking power—may continue to evolve. "Command of the sea in the future," writes Keegan, "unquestionably lies beneath rather than upon the surface." And, given the experience of the British in the Falklands in 1982, the distinct possibility arises of the disappearance of surface fleets altogether.