The Glorious First of June: Fleet Battle in the Reign of Terror by Sam Willis
| The Glorious First of June by Sam Willis | |
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| Category: History | |
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Reviewer: Andy Lancaster
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| Summary: Naval history seems such a rarefied subject that one might imagine this book having limited appeal. But Willis' account of this tremendous but inconclusive sea battle not only dynamical recreates the events and atmosphere of the day but clearly and dramatically puts everything in vivid context. The book becomes a classic, exploring Man's reasons for warfare, and his reactions to its outcomes. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 375 | Date: September 2011 |
| Publisher: Quercus Publishing Plc | |
| ISBN: 978-1849160384 | |
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To be frank, I was not expecting a lot from this account of a famous maritime battle. Marine warfare histories can be rather dull, with lists of ships and mind-numbing detail that may appeal if you have an intimate knowledge of a warship's anatomy, but quite deathly for the rest of us. But I was gripped from the first page to the last by this really insightful account not just of the battle but of the whole political and historical events which inspired it.
Willis gives us all the detail that a military naval historian could want, but sensibly much of it is in appendices. He concentrates on creating clear and vibrant images of the places and events in his scope. And that means vignettes of the execution of the French king, the butchery of the Terror, the celebrations in London after the battle, even of the contrasting heroic statues which commemorate the event, one in Westminster Abbey, but also one in the Pantheon in Paris.
For essentially that is Willis's approach – to capture the mood and the emotions, the political pressures and dramatic action, but always in a balanced, even-handed manner. So we see the Glorious First from the British and French points of view, we appreciate the bravery and skills, and the incompetence and spite on both sides, and witness the unfairness which touched almost everyone involved in this crucial battle. And always Willis brings us back to the essential clash between the motives and drives acting on these nations and their navies. Even in the heat of clear, lucid and dramatic description of battle, Willis does not let us forget the complex blend of skill and slaughter, horror and glory.
What Willis achieves here is an understanding of the ideologies of both nations at this crucial point of history, where the nascent French Revolution might have been snuffed out, and where the British establishment managed to both claim a glorious victory from what was many senses a failure, while simultaneously criticising and improperly rewarding those who gained it. And most crucially, Willis makes us see that at this moment in 1794 the European world changed forever, for warfare had ceased to be about the riches of individual princes and kings, but had become clashes between peoples who had discovered a new and fundamental sense of nationhood.
There is something immediately engaging and dynamic about Willis's style, telling us about complex events but through the eyes of a witness to them, and in that it has similarities to parts of Remember, Remember the Fifth of November by James Sharpe in which some of the complexities of religious strife in the 1600s are made clear for the lay reader. But (Dr) Sam Willis is a painstaking professional scholar and one of the pleasures of his book is following the detail of the research taking us through many interesting and often small human stories which bring the events to life. The Long Road Home: The Aftermath of the Second World War by Ben Shephard manages exactly the same blend of humanity and scholarship in its exploration of what happened to some of the millions of lives touched by the Second World War.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Glorious First of June: Fleet Battle in the Reign of Terror by Sam Willis at Amazon.com.
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