Rating: 
Summary: A Fine History of the Naval Arms Race
Review: Peter Massie's Dreadnought is a very fine history of the naval arms race that began with the ascension of Kaiser Wilhelm II to the throne of Germany, and ended with the battle of Jutland. Massie's book includes wonderful details of the people involved, from the Kaiser and his strained relationship with his English mother and with his grandmother, Queen Victoria, to Prince (and then King) Edward's love affair with ships, to the great admirals who had the vision of what the modern battleship should look like, von Tirpitz for the Germans and Sir John ("Jacky") Fisher for the English. Massie gives excellent details of the ships' design and construction, and of the battles in each country to get them funded -- the German army begrudged the expenditure and saw the battleships as a dangerous adventure, and British politicians such as Lloyd George and Churchill, who were interested in social reform, regretted their expense (Churchill, however changed his mind when he saw the growing German naval threat, and as First Lord of the Admiralty, sped up the modernization of the fleet in time for the war.). This is a good book to help understand the naval strategy of the times, and of the general atmosphere of Europe before the frist war. My only complaint with the book is that it ends too soon -- I would love to see Massie give an account of Jutland, the major sea battle of World War I, in which the ideas of Fisher and von Tirpitz were tested in actual battle -- as the book is, we never see the great ships actually employed in battle. I would also have liked to see Massie's opinion on Fisher's return to the Admiralty during the war under Churchill, and his abandonment of Churchill when he could not face the potential destruction of the ships at the Dardanelles -- which was a cause of Churchill being driven from office. I would also have like to see Massie's opinion of whether Churchill or Fisher's judgment was the correct one. But these are minor criticisms -- this is a very fine work of history, and is an excellent basius for understanding the naval arms race that was one of the proximate causes of the First World War.
Rating: 
Summary: First-Class Historical Narrative
Review: Robert Massey's DREADNOUGHT is less a history of the building of the first true battleship or even a history limited to the naval arms race between Germany and Great Britain in the years prior to World War I than it is a comprehensive and expansive political and personal history of the men, policies, and treaty entanglements of Europe over the last half of the 19th century and up until the breakout of total war in 1914. The scope of this book is impressive and its particular strength is in the detailed personal narratives concerning the men who shaped the history of Europe and the world at this time.
The most compelling of these narratives and the most interesting exposition of personality must be the storyline concerning the Kaiser, William II. Alternatively child-like in his petulance and his longing on approval from his family (that being the English royal family) and regal in the assertion of his imperial prerogative and in his capricious vanity, William is flawed, but ultimately likable.
This volume is powered by dozens of other richly textured character studies on both the English and German sides from Otto von Bismarck and Queen Victoria to Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz and Winston Churchill.
Personally, I am a fan of naval history (or more generally, the history of technologies and warfare) as well as a fan of general history. For the naval buffs, I would recommend the sequel to this volume: CASTLES OF STEEL, over this work. However, for general history, you won't find anything better than DREADNOUGHT.
Jeremy W. Forstadt
Rating:
Summary: Good book
Review: The subject seemed somewhat uninteresting at first but to my surprise Massie kept me reading and, as another reviewer said, there it is, on my bookshelf next to Barbara Tuchman. I will read it again so I guess I can recommend it wihout hesitation.
Rating:
Summary: Only 2 pages on the Dreadnought
Review: This is not a book about the Dreadnought, or even naval history. It covers the politics and colonial intrigues that set the stage for a pan-European catastrophe.
Each character, large or small, on the internation stage gets several pages of biographical introduction, which was mostly skipped by this reviewer. The somewhat subdued pace picks up considerably with the introduction of Fisher and Churchill half way through the book.
4 stars might be a touch generous, 3 stars a little miserly.
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