The five volumes that constitute Arthur Marder's From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow represented arguably the finest contribution to the literature of naval history since Alfred Mahan. A J P Taylor wrote that 'his naval history has a unique fascination. To unrivalled mastery of sources he adds a gift of simple narrative ...He is beyond praise, as he is beyond cavil.' The five volumes were subtitled The Royal Navy in the Fisher Era, 1904 - 1919 and they are still, despite recent major contributions from Robert Massie and Andrew Gordan, regarded by many as the definitive history of naval events leading up to and including the Great War. This second volume begins with the embarrassing escape of the German ship Goeben, before moving on to the defeat at Coronel, soon avenged off the Falkland Islands. Marder then turns his attention to the humiliation of the Dardenelles and the submarine menace, before looking in detail at the whole question of British strategy and at how the High Seas Fleet was to brought to battle and dealt the crushing blow which the British public felt so confident of.
A new introduction by Barry Gough, the distinguished Canadian maritime and naval historian, assesses the importance of Marder's work and anchors it firmly amongst the great naval narrative histories of this era. This new paperback edition will bring a truly great work to a new generation of historians and general readers.