Overview

This is an important new history of decision-making and policy-making in the British Admiralty from Trafalgar to the aftermath of Jutland. C. I. Hamilton explores the role of technological change, the global balance of power and, in particular, of finance and the First World War in shaping decision-making and organisational development within the Admiralty. He shows that decision-making was found not so much in the hands of the Board but at first largely in the hands of individuals, then groups or committees, and finally certain permanent bureaucracies. The latter bodies, such as the Naval Staff, were crucial to the development of policy-making as was the civil service Secretariat under the Permanent Secretary. By the 1920s the Admiralty had become not just a proper policy-making organisation, but for the first time a thoroughly civil-military one.

Full Product Details

9780511974472

Table of Contents

Reviews

...intelligent and well-informed exploration of fundamental questions essential to the understanding of the nature of British naval power at its peak. -Jon Tetsuro Sumida, International Journal of Maritime History ...important work... -John B. Hattendorf, The Journal of Modern History

Author Information

C. I. Hamilton teaches modern European history at the University of the Witwatersrand. His previous publications include Portsmouth Dockyard Papers, 1852–1869: From Wood to Iron (2005).

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available