“…it was the most powerful individual weapon of war in the world…it determined the outcome of wars…it dominated sea battles.”

Acclaimed naval historian Ernle Bradford (COLUMBUS, DRAKE, NELSON, THE MIGHTY HOOD) is no stranger to the power and magnificence of battleships. In THE GREAT SHIP, he examines the bigger picture, tracing the evolution of these “men of war”.

Though the great ship no longer dominates the high seas, its impact on the struggle of world powers for hegemony cannot be overestimated. During its reign from the sixteenth century to the mid-twentieth it dominated every significant sea war. Both protector and destroyer, the great ship either kept peace or wreaked utter destruction. In World War II aircraft carriers demonstrated their new power and began to overshadow battleships. Ernle Bradford narrates the epic saga of these gone-but-not-forgotten war machines. From the building of the ships to the horrendous – and sometimes mortal – clashes with their foes, Bradford leads the reader through history, covering the noble ships that changed the face of history.

Another great book about men of war and the sea by Ernle Bradford. See all of his E-Reads titles here.

Ernle Bradford’s The Great Siege is one of E-Reads’ all-time bestselling nonfiction books. The take-no-prisoners war for Malta and control of the Mediterranean has gripped thousands of military history buffs ever since E-Reads put the book back in print.  And now it will be joined by fifteen equally riveting works of popular history acquired from the  Bradford estate.

From Thermopylae to Trafalgar, from Malta to Gibraltar, from the war in the Mediterranean to the Battle for the Atlantic, from Hannibal and Julius Caesar to St. Paul, Columbus, Drake and Henry the Navigator, Ernle Bradford has taken history’s greatest heroes and made them even grander and more vivid.

If you thrilled to The Great Siege, put these books on your must-read list and watch for them as we re-introduce them in the coming months.

THE GREAT BETRAYAL: The Story of the 4th Crusade
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
THERMOPYLAE: The Battle for the West
DRAKE: England’s Greatest Seafarer
GIBRALTAR: History of a Fortress
HANNIBAL
JULIUS CAESAR: The Pursuit of Power
THE SHIELD AND THE SWORD: The Knights of St John, Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta
NELSON: The Essential Hero
PAUL THE TRAVELER: St Paul and his World
THE GREAT SHIP
THE JOURNEYING MOON
THE MIGHTY HOOD: The Life and Death of Britain’s Proudest Warship
THE WIND FROM THE NORTH: The Life of Henry the Navigator
THE WIND FROM THE ISLAND