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The Glorious First of June: Fleet Battle in the Reign of Terror by Sam Willis (view source)
Revision as of 14:58, 20 October 2011
, 14:58, 20 October 2011no edit summary
|title=The Glorious First of June
|author=Sam Willis
|website=
|video=
|summary=Naval history seems such a rarefied subject that one might imagine this book having limited appeal. But Willis’ 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 Man's reasons for warfare, and his reactions to its outcomes.
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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 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.