Volume 51, Number 3 · February 26, 2004
Engines of Destruction
By Niall Ferguson
Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea
by Robert K. Massie
Random House, 865 pp., $35.00
In these days when the American colossus grapples with scarcely visible assailants, many people feel nostalgia for the days of symmetric warfare: when two sides were more or less evenly matched and, after a good, clean fight, the best man won. That is certainly one possible inference to be drawn from the popularity of the swashbuckling historical novels of Patrick O'Brian. The gentlemanly wars waged by the navies of the European great powers seem like the antithesis of today's ugly, asymmetric 'war against terror.'
Review, 2300 words
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