This volume unites many of the most significant and interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary naval history. The last few decades have witnessed a transformation in how this field is researched and understood, and the contributors to this publication include historians of race, sexuality, gender, material culture, popular culture and fine art. A generation ago, the study of naval history was a largely self-contained world. Its priorities and themes were understood and accepted, revolving broadly around issues of warfare, command and leadership, strategy and tactics, technology and weaponry. These crucial subjects remain. However, historians working within the discipline, and others from outside it who have identified the navy as fertile ground for analysis, have between them opened new perspectives on the subject. As a result, the assumptions of naval history have altered, and a variety of approaches now have a stake in defining it. This volume captures some of the resulting range of a field that continues to develop apace. It examines – through the prism of naval affairs – issues of nationhood and imperialism; the legacy of Nelson; the socio-cultural realities of life in ships and naval bases; and the processes of commemoration, journalism and stage-managed pageantry that plotted the interrelationship of ship and shore. 

This bold and original publication will be essential for undergraduate and postgraduate students of naval and maritime history. Beyond that, though, it marks an important intervention into wider historiographies that will be read by scholars from across the spectrum of social history, cultural studies and the analysis of national identity.