In Praise of Devon is an evocation of the unique character of the county and its people. John Lane eloquently describes Devon’s rivers, coastline and moors; its towns, villages and buildings; its beautiful images and objects, traditions and occupations—from Dartmoor to Devonshire dialect, Church Bells to Cream Teas, Honiton Lace to Holy Wells—and gives intimate sketches of the lives and values of twenty Devonians, including farmers, a trawlerman, a doctor, a cook, the sculptor Peter Randall Page, potter Clive Bowen and scientist James Lovelock. The text is complemented by 140 colour plates:?photographs, engravings and old master paintings of the Devon countryside.

This collection of essays sets out to present a sample of the rich diversity of writings on naval history in this period. The collection covers subjects ranging from strategy, operations and tactics, to administration, technology and the maritime economy. Within this volume the reader will be able to see essays that influenced the development of modern naval history through to samples of some of the latest research.

British power and global expansion between 1755 and 1815 have mainly been attributed to the fiscal-military state and the achievements of the Royal navy at sea. Roger Morriss here sheds new light on the broader range of developments in the infrastructure of the state needed to extend British power at sea and overseas. He demonstrates how developments in culture, experience and control in central government affected the supply of ships, manpower, food, transport and ordnance as well as the support of the army, permitting the maintenance of armed forces of unprecedented size and their projection to distant stations. He reveals how the British state, although dependent on the private sector, built a partnership with it based on trust, ethics and the law. This book argues that Britain's military bureaucracy, traditionally regarded as inferior to the fighting services, was in fact the keystone of the nation's maritime ascendancy.

The Garden History of Devon is a reference guide to historical sources for over 200 Devon gardens. It also provides an introduction for would-be garden historians on how to conduct garden research. The book is the result of an exploration of the archival resources of Devon's garden history; the objective being to provide signposts to research material for those interested in the development of Devon's gardens. The entries, arranged alphabetically, begin with a brief section describing each garden's history, amplified by quotations from contemporary travellers and diarists; following the descriptive sections are listings of documents, printed sources and illustrations relating to each garden. The greater part of this material is unknown to garden historians.

Considers naval leadership and management very widely, moving beyond a focus on leading admirals. Many works on naval history ascribe success to the special qualities of individual leaders, Nelson being the prime example. This book in contrast moves away from focusing on Nelson and other leading individuals to explore more fully how naval leadership worked in the context of a large, complex, globally-capable institution. It puts forward important original scholarship around four main themes: the place of the hero in naval leadership; organisational friction in matters of command; the role of management capability in the exercise of naval power; and the evolution of management and technical training in the Royal Navy. Besides providing much new, interesting material for naval and maritime historians, the book also offers important insights for management and leadership specialists more generally. HELEN DOE is a Fellow of the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies, University of Exeter and author of Enterprising Women and Shipping (Boydell, 2009). RICHARD HARDING is Professor of Organisational History at the University of Westminster and author of The Emergence of Britain's Global Naval Supremacy (Boydell, 2010), Amphibious Warfare in the Eighteenth Century (Royal Historical Society, 1991) and six other books. Contributors: GARETH COLE, MIKE FARQUHARSON-ROBERTS, MARY JONES, ROGER KNIGHT, ROGER MORRISS, ELINOR ROMANS, DAVID J. STARKEY, PETER WARD, OLIVER WALTON, BRITT ZERBE.

This book has been nominated for The Mountbatten Award for Best Book in the Maritime Media Awards 2021. The Routledge Companion to Marine and Maritime Worlds, 1400‒1800 explores early modern maritime history, culture, and the current state of the research and approaches taken by experts in the field. Ranging from cartography to poetry and decorative design to naval warfare, the book shows how once-traditional and often Euro-chauvinistic depictions of oceanic ‘mastery’ during the early modern period have been replaced by newer global ideas. This comprehensive volume challenges underlying assumptions by balancing its assessment of the consequences and accomplishments of European navigators in the era of Columbus, da Gama, and Magellan, with an awareness of the sophistication and maritime expertise in Asia, the Arab world, and the Americas. By imparting riveting new stories and global perceptions of maritime history and culture, the contributors provide readers with fresh insights concerning early modern entanglements between humans and the vast, unpredictable ocean. With maritime studies growing and the ocean’s health in decline, this volume is essential reading for academics and students interested in the historicization of the ocean and the ways early modern cultures both conceptualized and utilized seas.

The Reader's Guide to British History is the essential source to secondary material on British history. This resource contains over 1,000 A-Z entries on the history of Britain, from ancient and Roman Britain to the present day. Each entry lists 6-12 of the best-known books on the subject, then discusses those works in an essay of 800 to 1,000 words prepared by an expert in the field. The essays provide advice on the range and depth of coverage as well as the emphasis and point of view espoused in each publication.