Naval and Military Operations of Great Britain ─ Foundations of a New Naval Strategy

Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain is the single most important contemporary account of the navy in the eighteenth century. Its six volumes represent a new approach to naval strategy. Defeat in the American Revolutionary War questioned the assumed innate superiority upon which so much earlier commentary on naval affairs had been based. By addressing the specific causes of disaster, Beatson hoped his work would render both the navy and the nation wiser for the future. Lauded by key figures in the development of naval strategy—including John Laughton, Alfred T. Mahan, and Julian Corbett—it remains fundamental to modern scholarship on the nature of British naval power and is an especially rich source of information on the British army’s campaign in America. This edition contains a substantial new introduction by leading international scholar Andrew Lambert.

Robert Beatson LLD (1741-1818) was born in Fife in 1742. He was an ensign in General St Clair’s regiment, the First or Royal Regiment of the Foot, later the Royal Scots. He took part in the raid on Rochefort in 1756, saw service in Ireland and was took part in amphibious operations against Martinique and Guadeloupe. After the Seven Years’ War and moved to Aberdeen, where he served as Barrack Master for forty years. Beatson was part of an intellectual circle that included Adam Smith, a close friend of his. His other works include Political Index to the Histories of Great Britain and Ireland. The six volumes of Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain are regarded as his magnum opus and have influenced naval strategy from first publication to the present day.