Martello Towers Worldwide follows the history of the Martello tower from the construction of the early towers built to protect the Mediterranean shores of Spain and Italy right up to the final towers built in the United Kingdom during the First World War. The book is illustrated with a large number of contemporary and historic photographs, drawings and plans, a very large number of which were not included in the earlier Towers of Strength. These provide the most detailed information yet published about the development of the Martello towers in Britain and overseas. So the book will be of particular interest to those interested in the history of fortifications, architectural conservation and military history generally. It will also be of interest to an international readership as the book now has a gazetteer of towers outside the United Kingdom that remain today together with a chapter describing a number of towers built in the United States. The book supplements the earlier Towers of Strength and such will be an important addition to the existing bibliography of books on Martello towers and fortification.

Martello towers were built in the early part of the nineteenth century to defend the coast of England against Napoleonic invasion. Almost 200 years later forty-one of these handsome brick towers still stand along the coast of Kent, Sussex, Essex and Suffolk. The chest of their construction was comparable in relative terms to that of of today's Trident missile system. The line of towers was never tested in action, but acted as an effective deterrent against invasion. Today Martello towers are a familiar sight from Aldeburgh in Suffolk to Newhaven in Sussex, but it is generally known that similar towers were built by the Royal Engineers to defend British interests in other parts of the world. Martello towers were being built as late as the 1850s as far afield as Canada, Mauritius, Australia and the Mediterranean. This book, illustrated with numerous photographs and plans, is the first comprehensive and detailed study of the known Martello towers built by the British. Its description of their construction, use, current condition and fate will fascinate the enquiring reader, as well as being a source of interest to visitors. Many of the towers remain landmarks today, Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour being a case in point.

Far more than an architecture book, Coastal Defences of the British Empire, 1775–1815 is a sweeping reinterpretation of the Martello towers, Grand Redoubts, Royal Military Canal and other new defence infrastructure of the Napoleonic War. Lavishly illustrated with period maps, views, portraits, cartoons and newly commissioned color photographs, it includes not only these structures’ forerunners, and plans that were never executed, but also the grand strategy that informed them. At its best, this saw Britain’s position as a vast land battle, with the deadly threat of the French-held Antwerp navy yards on its own ‘left wing’, and Lisbon as the enemy’s ‘weak left’ to be ‘turned’. The book also takes in the astonishingly inventive, bold and bloody small-boat wars that raged from the Baltic and Channel coast to Chesapeake Bay and Lake Ontario, and provides vivid pen-sketches of the now-obscure and sometimes deeply flawed strategic visionaries, engineers, inventors, and fighting men who held the line as – even after Trafalgar – the forces of an ever more powerful French empire circled like sharks. Along the way, it traces a fundamental change in the nature of war and society: from a ponderous game of fortresses and colonies played by rulers, to murderous ‘foot by foot’ defence of the whole territory of the nation by ‘both sexes and every social type’.

This selected bibliography on modern European fortifications, from 1850 to 1950, provides a selection of the most important books and articles written on this topic. The work covers regions and countries and includes many sources on such popular topics such as the Maginot Line along with lesser known fortifications such as the Salpa Line and the Swiss National Redoubt. References for the fortifications that appear cover everything from the Iberian Peninsula to the Soviet Union and from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean countries. This work includes not only American and English, but also non-English publications. This source features books and articles done in the nineteenth and twentieth century ending in December 2000. Each contributor is a member of SITE O, an international fortifications research group. In addition to helpful annotations, each chapter includes summaries on the fortifications. Also features a multi-lingual glossary and reference maps.

“In his lively, vivid history of pirates, Lehr finds some striking continuities from ancient to modern times.” —Foreign Affairs A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year In the twenty-first century, pirates have regained a central place in Western culture, thanks to an odd combination of a blockbuster film franchise and a dramatic rise in piracy around the Horn of Africa. In this global history of the phenomenon, maritime terrorism and piracy expert Peter Lehr casts fresh light on pirates. Ranging from the Vikings and Wako pirates in the Middle Ages to modern-day Somali pirates, Lehr delves deep into what motivates pirates and how they operate. He also illuminates the state’s role in the development of piracy throughout history: from privateers sanctioned by Queen Elizabeth to pirates operating off the coast of Africa taking the law into their own hands. After exploring the structural failures that create fertile ground for pirate activities, Lehr evaluates the success of counter-piracy efforts—and the reasons behind its failures. “Informative and often entertaining . . . Lehr traces the global history of piracy, quoting judiciously from an array of historians and sources to make his case” —The Times “Groundbreaking . . . provides a detailed analysis of the causes of piracy [and] reveals the operations of pirates ignored in most previous histories.” —David Cordingly, author of Under the Black Flag “Policymakers would do well to read it, as would aspiring pirates in search of career advice.” —Financial Times

A wide-ranging history of the geography and communities of Kent from the earliest times to the present day.Kent, with its long coastline and its important geopolitical position close to London and continental Europe, and on major trading routes between Britain and the wider world, has had a very significant maritime history. This book covers a wide range of topics relating to that history from the earliest times to the present day. It sets Kent's varied coastline and waters in their geological and geographical context, showing how erosion and sediment deposition have contributed to the changing nature of maritime activities and populations. It examines Kent's strategic role in the defence of the country with the development and redevelopment of coastal defences, including four naval dockyards. It goes on to consider the supporting industries which grew up around the coastline, those which supplied raw materials and agricultural products from the county's hinterland, and its wider national and international trading links. It also discusses the diverse coastal communities of Kent and how they have changed in response to the demands of defence, trade, and changing population and migration patterns. In addition, the book includes detailed case studies which explore particular subject areas as exemplars of the major themes covered by the book.l trading links. It also discusses the diverse coastal communities of Kent and how they have changed in response to the demands of defence, trade, and changing population and migration patterns. In addition, the book includes detailed case studies which explore particular subject areas as exemplars of the major themes covered by the book.l trading links. It also discusses the diverse coastal communities of Kent and how they have changed in response to the demands of defence, trade, and changing population and migration patterns. In addition, the book includes detailed case studies which explore particular subject areas as exemplars of the major themes covered by the book.l trading links. It also discusses the diverse coastal communities of Kent and how they have changed in response to the demands of defence, trade, and changing population and migration patterns. In addition, the book includes detailed case studies which explore particular subject areas as exemplars of the major themes covered by the book.

This is the first guide to sites in the British Isles connected to the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars to be published. Stately homes, memorials, statues, dockyards, fortifications, tombs, churches, hospitals and museums associated with the wars are all described in vivid detail. There are hundreds of such sites with many of them being closely linked to military heroes like Wellington and Nelson and the forces they commanded. Highpoints include not only St Paul’s Cathedral, Nelson’s Column and Apsley House in London but more obscure monuments and buildings outside the capital like Edinburgh Castle, HMS Victory in Portsmouth Dockyard, the Western Heights Fortifications in Dover, Fishguard invasion site in Wales, Castlebar battlefield in Ireland and Martello towers along the English coastline. Many minor sites of great interest are listed too. David Buttery’s guidebook gives the reader a fascinating insight into this long period of conflict between the British and the French and into the buildings, statues and memorials that commemorate it.