Alan D. Hyde
01-21-2005, 12:00 PM
N.A.M. Rodger--- Biography
I studied at University College Oxford (M.A. & D.Phil.,1974) and then spent seventeen years in the Public Record Office as an Assistant Keeper of Public Records, 1974-1991. Resigning from the public service, I began my Naval History of Britain with the support of the National Maritime Museum, the Navy Records Society and the Society for Nautical Research. The Museum gave me the title of Anderson Senior Research Fellow. In 1999 I moved to Exeter as Senior Lecturer, and the following year was appointed Professor of Naval History.
I am a Fellow of the British Academy (elected 2003), the Society of Antiquaries (1985) & the Royal Historical Society (1980).
http://www.ex.ac.uk/shipss/history/staff/rodger/photo.jpg
Thanks to this gentleman (an Oxonian, naturally), it looks like there's some good reading out there, unread as yet by myself.
Here's a link to a bibliography:
http://www.nauticalfiction.co.uk/author_bibliograph y.php?id=148 (http://www.nauticalfiction.co.uk/author_bibliography.php?id=148)
All of this thanks to Andrew Craig-Bennett, as a result of his comments on the Nelson thread...
Alan
More info:
Courtesy of Contemporary Authors Online:
N(icholas) A(ndrew) M(artin) Rodger
1949-
Entry Updated : 11/11/2004
"Sidelights"
According to reviewer Christopher Lloyd of History Today, N. A. M. Rodger's The Admiralty is a "much needed book" that unravels the confusion of the naval administration of the British government while managing to be entertaining at the same time. Rodger, who served as an Assistant Keeper at the Public Record Office, looks at the office of Lord Admiral in both its political and its administrative context. Rodger focuses particularly on a historical split in the administration of the British navy--the Navy was administered by the Lord Admiral (an executive position) but the King's ships were administered by the Clerk of the Acts (an administrative Navy position). The two entities operated together until 1832, when the Navy Board was temporarily abolished. After some additional struggling over power, the British government decided that wars would be best fought with unified administration. The Navy Board finally ceased to exist in 1964. Lloyd gave the author credit for handling the administrative twists and turns clearly and praised him for making this typically dry history very enjoyable by filling out his story with personality profiles and the use of anecdotes. Richard Ollard of British Book News called the book "essential reading" and found it incredible that Rodger covered five centuries of history in only 160 pages. Ollard notes that Rodger is not afraid to take risks in his writing and goes beyond sticking to unprovocative subjects.
In The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy Rodger looks at the social rather than administrative aspects of British navy life in the 1700s. According to Rodger, myths about sailors' behavior during this time in history are largely incorrect. Rodger maintains that the class structure between officers and sailors was not as big a factor as other interpretations of history have suggested. He also suggests that brutal discipline was not the norm and points out that the Navy could not have been as effective as it was had the men been operating from fear and in "concentration camp" type surroundings. The author maintains that officers were selected for ability rather than political leanings, and that violence in the navy was rarer than it has popularly perceived. Rodger describes much of everyday British navy life during this period, including the food that the sailors received, their health, and provisions for them to have women on board. Many of the examples are taken from anecdotes and some descriptions are backed by official records. Bryan Ranft of the English Historical Review gave Rodger credit for treating the Navy as an entity affected by, rather than separate from, timely social forces. Roger Morriss of the Times Literary Supplement called the book "highly stimulating and provocative."
Rodger next focused on the Earl of Sandwich in The Insatiable Earl: A Life of John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich, 1718-1792. According to the author, the Earl has been historically ignored as a person, though reviewer Julian Gwyn of American Historical Review disagreed with this assessment. Gwyn claimed that historians such as Rodger usually stick to the facts on their subjects and steer clear of presenting information in a biographical fashion. Rodger portrays Sandwich as a naval reformer with a vision, though he suggests that Sandwich occupied the post of Lord Admiral a little too late to seriously affect the direction of the American War. By presenting his portrayal of Sandwich in this light, Rodger denies a popular historical perception that Sandwich was in fact responsible for the loss of the American colonies. Rodger notes some of Sandwich's visionary ideas about promotion, such as his attempts to control the quality of officers who moved up through the ranks. Reviewer Randolph Trumbach of the Historian would have preferred more detail on Sandwich's interesting private life (including his legendary sexual dalliances, the murder of his mistress, and the ruin of his marriage when his wife went mad), but praised the author for not being "argumentative in tone" regarding some of the personal opinions of the day regarding Sandwich.
In the collection of essays Naval Power in the Twentieth Century, Rodger offers a general theory of how navies have worked in the 1900s. The collection looks closely at the global trends that shaped the world's fleets. Naval priorities were changed forever by the outcomes of the World Wars. Prior to the wars the navies' objectives centered around building large surface fleets of battleships and incorporating the use of transportable fighting air power. After the world wars, however, world navies had to adjust to a world dominated by two superpowers. Much planning revolved around the possibility of nuclear attacks and included the use of missiles or aircraft carriers for the prevention of nuclear attack. The collection also focuses on specific illustrations of twentieth century naval phenomena such as the U-boat, which was deemed " . . . a weapon of denial; unaided it was incapable of obtaining or exercising control." Reviewer R. Blake Dunnavent of Naval War College Review felt that the collection would have benefited from a closing chapter which tied ideas together about twentieth century navies. But overall this reviewer found the collection interesting and expansive.
In The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 660-1649 Rodger covers his subject in a way that ties it with the parallel growth of Britain as a nation. The author starts his survey in the 600s and focuses on the fight for the three bodies of water surrounding Britain. This period, according to Rodger, was crucial in establishing a sense for the importance and the protectiveness of a British navy. Rodger demonstrates that much of naval effort in the following millennium was disjointed and inadequately financed. Rodger maintains that historical events, such as the Norman Conquest, served to set England apart from its neighboring countries (Scotland, Wales, Ireland). Although British navies regained strength during the Elizabethan period, Rodger calls this an "anomaly" in overall British naval history. The book includes maps, ship plans, a glossary, and extensive historical research. Michael Howard of Times Literary Supplement called the book a "wonderfully readable account" of history, "written . . . from every conceivable side." Simon Adams of Times Literary Supplement praised Rodger's knowledge of the related historical literature, called the book "more than just a naval history," and looked forward to Rodger's next effort.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Family: Born 1949, in Wellington, New Zealand; son of I.A. (a lieutenant commander) and Sara Mary (maiden name, Perceval) Rodger; married Susan Farwell, 1982; children: four. Citizenship: British. Education: University College, Oxford, England, B.A., 1971, M.A. and Dphil., 1974. Addresses: Agent: Curtis Brown John Farquharson, Haymarket House, 28/29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4SP England. E-mail: nrodger@rmple.co.uk.
AWARDS
Corbett Prize for naval history (for journal article), 1982; Anderson Medal of the Society for Nautical Research, 1998.
CAREER
Public Record Office, London, assistant keeper, 1974-91; Anderson Fellow at National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England, Anderson Fellow, 1992--. Royal History Society, Society of Antiquaries, fellow.
WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR:
The Admiralty, Terence Dalton Ltd. (Lavenham, England), 1979.
Articles of War: The Statutes Which Governed Our Fighting Navies, 1661, 1749, and 1886, K. Mason (Homewell, Havant, Hampshire), 1982.
Naval Records for Genealogists, Public Record Office (London), 1984.
The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1986.
The Armada in the Public Records, H.M.S.O. (London), 1988.
(Editor with G. J. A. Raven and M. C. F. van Drunen) Navies and Armies: The Anglo-Dutch Relationship in War and Peace, 1688-1988, J. Donald Publishers (Edinburgh), 1990.
The Insatiable Earl: A Life of John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich, 1718-1792, HarperCollins (London), 1993.
(Editor) Naval Power in the Twentieth Century, Naval Institute Press, 1996.
The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 660-1649, Norton (New York, NY), 1998.
Also contributor of articles on naval history to French and British periodicals.
FURTHER READINGS ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
PERIODICALS
American Historical Review, June, 1988, p. 695; February, 1995, pp. 158-159.
Books, May, 1988, p. 10.
British Book News, February, 1980, p. 92; August, 1981, p. 460.
Choice, March, 1987, p. 1132.
English Historical Review, April, 1988, pp. 436-437.
Guardian Weekly, January 4, 1987, p. 22.
Historian, spring, 1995, pp. 645-646.
History Today, February, 1980, pp. 54-55; February, 1987, pp. 59-61; March, 1994, pp. 53-54; June, 1998, p. 61.
Journal of Military History, April, 1994, p. 322.
London Review of Books, July 7, 1988, p. 3.
Naval War College Review, winter, 1997, pp. 136-137.
New Statesman, December 5, 1997, p. 43.
New Yorker, June 6, 1994, p. 99.
New York Times Book Review, May 31, 1998, p. 14.
Observer, September 14, 1986, p. 26; April 10, 1988, p. 41; August 1, 1993, p. 54; October 12, 1997, p. 16.
Publishers Weekly, December 13, 1993, p. 58; March 9, 1998, p. 60.
Queen's Quarterly, autumn, 1988, pp. 716-718.
Times Educational Supplement, December 19, 1986, p. 18; June 24, 1988, p. 26.
Times Literary Supplement, December 12, 1986, p. 1397; December 2-8, 1988, p. 1346; July 30, 1993, p. 23; December 5, 1997, p. 8; January 9, 1998, p. 26.
Wall Street Journal, January 5, 1994, p. A10.
SOURCE CITATION
Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2005. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2005. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
Document Number: H1000129870
[ 01-21-2005, 12:39 PM: Message edited by: Alan D. Hyde ]
I studied at University College Oxford (M.A. & D.Phil.,1974) and then spent seventeen years in the Public Record Office as an Assistant Keeper of Public Records, 1974-1991. Resigning from the public service, I began my Naval History of Britain with the support of the National Maritime Museum, the Navy Records Society and the Society for Nautical Research. The Museum gave me the title of Anderson Senior Research Fellow. In 1999 I moved to Exeter as Senior Lecturer, and the following year was appointed Professor of Naval History.
I am a Fellow of the British Academy (elected 2003), the Society of Antiquaries (1985) & the Royal Historical Society (1980).
http://www.ex.ac.uk/shipss/history/staff/rodger/photo.jpg
Thanks to this gentleman (an Oxonian, naturally), it looks like there's some good reading out there, unread as yet by myself.
Here's a link to a bibliography:
http://www.nauticalfiction.co.uk/author_bibliograph y.php?id=148 (http://www.nauticalfiction.co.uk/author_bibliography.php?id=148)
All of this thanks to Andrew Craig-Bennett, as a result of his comments on the Nelson thread...
Alan
More info:
Courtesy of Contemporary Authors Online:
N(icholas) A(ndrew) M(artin) Rodger
1949-
Entry Updated : 11/11/2004
"Sidelights"
According to reviewer Christopher Lloyd of History Today, N. A. M. Rodger's The Admiralty is a "much needed book" that unravels the confusion of the naval administration of the British government while managing to be entertaining at the same time. Rodger, who served as an Assistant Keeper at the Public Record Office, looks at the office of Lord Admiral in both its political and its administrative context. Rodger focuses particularly on a historical split in the administration of the British navy--the Navy was administered by the Lord Admiral (an executive position) but the King's ships were administered by the Clerk of the Acts (an administrative Navy position). The two entities operated together until 1832, when the Navy Board was temporarily abolished. After some additional struggling over power, the British government decided that wars would be best fought with unified administration. The Navy Board finally ceased to exist in 1964. Lloyd gave the author credit for handling the administrative twists and turns clearly and praised him for making this typically dry history very enjoyable by filling out his story with personality profiles and the use of anecdotes. Richard Ollard of British Book News called the book "essential reading" and found it incredible that Rodger covered five centuries of history in only 160 pages. Ollard notes that Rodger is not afraid to take risks in his writing and goes beyond sticking to unprovocative subjects.
In The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy Rodger looks at the social rather than administrative aspects of British navy life in the 1700s. According to Rodger, myths about sailors' behavior during this time in history are largely incorrect. Rodger maintains that the class structure between officers and sailors was not as big a factor as other interpretations of history have suggested. He also suggests that brutal discipline was not the norm and points out that the Navy could not have been as effective as it was had the men been operating from fear and in "concentration camp" type surroundings. The author maintains that officers were selected for ability rather than political leanings, and that violence in the navy was rarer than it has popularly perceived. Rodger describes much of everyday British navy life during this period, including the food that the sailors received, their health, and provisions for them to have women on board. Many of the examples are taken from anecdotes and some descriptions are backed by official records. Bryan Ranft of the English Historical Review gave Rodger credit for treating the Navy as an entity affected by, rather than separate from, timely social forces. Roger Morriss of the Times Literary Supplement called the book "highly stimulating and provocative."
Rodger next focused on the Earl of Sandwich in The Insatiable Earl: A Life of John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich, 1718-1792. According to the author, the Earl has been historically ignored as a person, though reviewer Julian Gwyn of American Historical Review disagreed with this assessment. Gwyn claimed that historians such as Rodger usually stick to the facts on their subjects and steer clear of presenting information in a biographical fashion. Rodger portrays Sandwich as a naval reformer with a vision, though he suggests that Sandwich occupied the post of Lord Admiral a little too late to seriously affect the direction of the American War. By presenting his portrayal of Sandwich in this light, Rodger denies a popular historical perception that Sandwich was in fact responsible for the loss of the American colonies. Rodger notes some of Sandwich's visionary ideas about promotion, such as his attempts to control the quality of officers who moved up through the ranks. Reviewer Randolph Trumbach of the Historian would have preferred more detail on Sandwich's interesting private life (including his legendary sexual dalliances, the murder of his mistress, and the ruin of his marriage when his wife went mad), but praised the author for not being "argumentative in tone" regarding some of the personal opinions of the day regarding Sandwich.
In the collection of essays Naval Power in the Twentieth Century, Rodger offers a general theory of how navies have worked in the 1900s. The collection looks closely at the global trends that shaped the world's fleets. Naval priorities were changed forever by the outcomes of the World Wars. Prior to the wars the navies' objectives centered around building large surface fleets of battleships and incorporating the use of transportable fighting air power. After the world wars, however, world navies had to adjust to a world dominated by two superpowers. Much planning revolved around the possibility of nuclear attacks and included the use of missiles or aircraft carriers for the prevention of nuclear attack. The collection also focuses on specific illustrations of twentieth century naval phenomena such as the U-boat, which was deemed " . . . a weapon of denial; unaided it was incapable of obtaining or exercising control." Reviewer R. Blake Dunnavent of Naval War College Review felt that the collection would have benefited from a closing chapter which tied ideas together about twentieth century navies. But overall this reviewer found the collection interesting and expansive.
In The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 660-1649 Rodger covers his subject in a way that ties it with the parallel growth of Britain as a nation. The author starts his survey in the 600s and focuses on the fight for the three bodies of water surrounding Britain. This period, according to Rodger, was crucial in establishing a sense for the importance and the protectiveness of a British navy. Rodger demonstrates that much of naval effort in the following millennium was disjointed and inadequately financed. Rodger maintains that historical events, such as the Norman Conquest, served to set England apart from its neighboring countries (Scotland, Wales, Ireland). Although British navies regained strength during the Elizabethan period, Rodger calls this an "anomaly" in overall British naval history. The book includes maps, ship plans, a glossary, and extensive historical research. Michael Howard of Times Literary Supplement called the book a "wonderfully readable account" of history, "written . . . from every conceivable side." Simon Adams of Times Literary Supplement praised Rodger's knowledge of the related historical literature, called the book "more than just a naval history," and looked forward to Rodger's next effort.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Family: Born 1949, in Wellington, New Zealand; son of I.A. (a lieutenant commander) and Sara Mary (maiden name, Perceval) Rodger; married Susan Farwell, 1982; children: four. Citizenship: British. Education: University College, Oxford, England, B.A., 1971, M.A. and Dphil., 1974. Addresses: Agent: Curtis Brown John Farquharson, Haymarket House, 28/29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4SP England. E-mail: nrodger@rmple.co.uk.
AWARDS
Corbett Prize for naval history (for journal article), 1982; Anderson Medal of the Society for Nautical Research, 1998.
CAREER
Public Record Office, London, assistant keeper, 1974-91; Anderson Fellow at National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England, Anderson Fellow, 1992--. Royal History Society, Society of Antiquaries, fellow.
WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR:
The Admiralty, Terence Dalton Ltd. (Lavenham, England), 1979.
Articles of War: The Statutes Which Governed Our Fighting Navies, 1661, 1749, and 1886, K. Mason (Homewell, Havant, Hampshire), 1982.
Naval Records for Genealogists, Public Record Office (London), 1984.
The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1986.
The Armada in the Public Records, H.M.S.O. (London), 1988.
(Editor with G. J. A. Raven and M. C. F. van Drunen) Navies and Armies: The Anglo-Dutch Relationship in War and Peace, 1688-1988, J. Donald Publishers (Edinburgh), 1990.
The Insatiable Earl: A Life of John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich, 1718-1792, HarperCollins (London), 1993.
(Editor) Naval Power in the Twentieth Century, Naval Institute Press, 1996.
The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 660-1649, Norton (New York, NY), 1998.
Also contributor of articles on naval history to French and British periodicals.
FURTHER READINGS ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
PERIODICALS
American Historical Review, June, 1988, p. 695; February, 1995, pp. 158-159.
Books, May, 1988, p. 10.
British Book News, February, 1980, p. 92; August, 1981, p. 460.
Choice, March, 1987, p. 1132.
English Historical Review, April, 1988, pp. 436-437.
Guardian Weekly, January 4, 1987, p. 22.
Historian, spring, 1995, pp. 645-646.
History Today, February, 1980, pp. 54-55; February, 1987, pp. 59-61; March, 1994, pp. 53-54; June, 1998, p. 61.
Journal of Military History, April, 1994, p. 322.
London Review of Books, July 7, 1988, p. 3.
Naval War College Review, winter, 1997, pp. 136-137.
New Statesman, December 5, 1997, p. 43.
New Yorker, June 6, 1994, p. 99.
New York Times Book Review, May 31, 1998, p. 14.
Observer, September 14, 1986, p. 26; April 10, 1988, p. 41; August 1, 1993, p. 54; October 12, 1997, p. 16.
Publishers Weekly, December 13, 1993, p. 58; March 9, 1998, p. 60.
Queen's Quarterly, autumn, 1988, pp. 716-718.
Times Educational Supplement, December 19, 1986, p. 18; June 24, 1988, p. 26.
Times Literary Supplement, December 12, 1986, p. 1397; December 2-8, 1988, p. 1346; July 30, 1993, p. 23; December 5, 1997, p. 8; January 9, 1998, p. 26.
Wall Street Journal, January 5, 1994, p. A10.
SOURCE CITATION
Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2005. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2005. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
Document Number: H1000129870
[ 01-21-2005, 12:39 PM: Message edited by: Alan D. Hyde ]