Chosen as Professor Andrew Lambert's top History book of 2010 in BBC History Magazine's Christmas edition: http://publicpolicypast.blogspot.com/2010/12/good-reviews-cheer-me-up.html 'Glen O'Hara has brought his rigorous historical intellect to bear on one of the biggest and most important actors in British economic, social and cultural history: the sea that surrounds these islands. Even the most incorrigible landlubber will be educated and fascinated by this rich and original book.' - Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University, and author of Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World '.valiant and successful.

' - The Scotsman 'Ours is an island story, it's always said - but our chroniclers haven't generally attempted to think through what that might have meant for British history as a whole. The implications have, of course, been far too complex to be captured in a single study, but Glen O'Hara makes a valiant - and surprisingly successful - try. Here, we find everything from fishing to the Falklands War; from Raleigh's explorations to the rise of the seaside resort. Not just North Sea Oil but the South Sea Bubb≤ not just the Battle of Trafalgar but the slave trade. If Britannia's ruled the waves, he finds, the converse has also been true: the sea has made Britain - and her people - what they are.' - The Scotsman 'This book may not cure the deep , endemic historical malaise of maritime myopia , but it does offer a powerful , economical remedy for anyone willing to risk the treatment.' - BBC History Magazine '[O'Hara's] creative synthesis brings together much of what is best in recent scholarship with wider academic concerns to provide a holistic approach to an oceanic nation.this text demands that all historians of Britain, whatever their specialisation, must reconsider the place of the sea.

The impressive scholarly apparatus demonstrates a substantial engagement with the literature, and provides a fine guide to anyone essaying a new avenue of research.' - English Historical Review.