Historical Dreadnoughts: Marder and Roskill: Writing and Fighting Naval History

By Barry Gough

This is the story of the remarkable, intersecting careers of the two greatest writers on British naval history in the twentieth century – the American professor Arthur Marder, son of immigrant Russian Jews, and Captain Stephen Roskill, who knew the Royal Navy from the inside. Between them, these contrasting characters were to peel back the lid of historical secrecy that surrounded the maritime aspects of the two world wars, based on the privileged access to official papers they both achieved through different channels.

Initially their mutual interests led to a degree of friendly rivalry, but this was to deteriorate into a stormy academic feud fought out in newspaper columns and the footnotes of their books – much to the bemusement (and sometimes amusement) of the naval history community. Out of it, surprisingly, emerged some of the best historical writing on naval themes, and a central contribution of this book is to reveal the process by which the two historians produced their literary masterpieces.

Anyone who has read Marder’s From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow or Roskill’s The War at Sea – and they were both bestsellers in their day – will be entertained and enlightened by this story of the men A J P Taylor called ‘our historical dreadnoughts’.

This is the story of the remarkable, intersecting careers of the two greatest writers on British naval history in the twentieth century – the American professor Arthur Marder, son of immigrant Russian Jews, and Captain Stephen Roskill, who knew the Royal Navy from the inside. Between them, these contrasting characters were to peel back the lid of historical secrecy that surrounded the maritime aspects of the two world wars, based on the privileged access to official papers they both achieved through different channels.

Initially their mutual interests led to a degree of friendly rivalry, but this was to deteriorate into a stormy academic feud fought out in newspaper columns and the footnotes of their books – much to the bemusement (and sometimes amusement) of the naval history community. Out of it, surprisingly, emerged some of the best historical writing on naval themes, and a central contribution of this book is to reveal the process by which the two historians produced their literary masterpieces.

Anyone who has read Marder’s From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow or Roskill’s The War at Sea – and they were both bestsellers in their day – will be entertained and enlightened by this story of the men A J P Taylor called ‘our historical dreadnoughts’.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Jul 5, 2010
• ISBN: 9781473814967

Barry Gough

Barry Gough, sailor-historian, is past president of the Organization for the History of Canada and the Official Historian of HMCS Haida, Canada's most decorated warship. His acclaimed books on the Royal Navy and British Columbia have received numerous prizes, including the prestigious Clio Award of the Canadian Historical Association. Professor emeritus of Wilfrid Laurier University, he lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Reviews for Historical Dreadnoughts

[dinadansfriend · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

They did fight, in a gentlemanly and scholarly fashion. Marder, an American and an academic seems the nicer man. Captain Roskill had been a WWII commander of a light cruiser, and had been in battles. Roskill, author of the WWII British Naval official history was self taught, and somewhat lacking in vocabulary and fluency when he started the historical stage of his career. But was time went on he learned his trade. Arthur Marder began with a detailed history of the British navy in WWI and was an academic with no field experience. Their differences were in the area of inter-war naval policy and the early stages of WWII at sea. Both men should be read as part of an education about the Twentieth century British Navy. Mr. Gough, a Canadian, gives what I believe is an-even-handed and clear explanation of the discussions.