A two hundredth anniversary retelling of the Trafalgar battle profiles Horatio Nelson as a leader with a fierce sense of honor and duty who embodied a particular skill for inspiring love in others, in an account that draws on a range of sources to examine the ambitions, fears, and principles that contributed to the British Mediterranean fleet's victory. By the author of Seamanship. Reprint. 35,000 first printing.
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“Strikingly original. . . . Nicolson brings to life superbly the horror, devastation, and gore of Trafalgar.” —The EconomistAdam Nicolson takes the great naval battle of Trafalgar, fought between the British and Franco-Spanish fleets, and uses it to examine our idea of heroism and the heroic. A story rich with modern resonance, Seize the Fire reveals the economic impact of the battle as a victorious Great Britain emerged as a global commercial empire.In October 1805 Lord Horatio Nelson, the most brilliant sea commander who ever lived, led the British Royal Navy to a devastating victory over the Franco-Spanish fleets at the great battle of Trafalgar. It was the foundation of Britain's nineteenth-century world-dominating empire. Seize the Fire is not only a close and revealing portrait of a legendary hero in his final action but also a vivid account of the brutal realities of battle; it asks the questions: Why did the winners win? What was it about the British, their commanders and their men, their beliefs and their ambitions, that took them to such overwhelming victory?His masterful history is a portrait of a moment, a close and passionately engaged depiction of a frame of mind at a turning point in world history.
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