The War for All the Oceans
From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo
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Narrated by:
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Patrick Lawlor
About this listen
The War for All the Oceans is epic narrative history, sure to appeal to fans of Patrick O'Brian and C. S. Forester, as well as all readers of military and social history.
©2007 Roy Adkins and Lesley Adkins (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Although previously undervalued for their strategic impact because they represented only a small percentage of total forces, the Union and Confederate navies were crucial to the outcome of the Civil War. In War on the Waters, James M. McPherson has crafted an enlightening, at times harrowing, and ultimately thrilling account of the war’s naval campaigns and their military leaders. McPherson recounts how the Union navy’s blockade of the Confederate coast, leaky as a sieve in the war’s early months, became increasingly effective as it choked off vital imports and exports.
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From Offshore, This War Looks Completely Different
- By John on 04-30-21
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Jefferson's War
- America's First War on Terror, 1801-1805
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: Patrick Cullen
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Two centuries ago, without congressional or public debate, a president who is thought of today as peaceable, Thomas Jefferson, launched America's first war on foreign soil, a war against terror. The enemy was Muslim; the war was waged unconventionally, with commandos, native troops, and encrypted intelligence, and launched from foreign bases.
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A Great Read
- By Donald on 06-19-05
By: Joseph Wheelan
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Rebels at Sea
- Privateering in the American Revolution
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The heroic story of the founding of the US Navy during the Revolution has been told many times, yet largely missing from maritime histories of America's first war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels that truly revealed the new nation's character. In Rebels at Sea, Eric Jay Dolin corrects that significant omission, and contends that privateers, as they were called, were in fact critical to the American victory. Privateers were privately owned vessels that were granted permission by the new government to seize British merchantmen and men of war.
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If you can get over the narrator...
- By Toby Everett on 09-20-22
By: Eric Jay Dolin
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1812: The Navy's War
- By: George C. Daughan
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 18 hrs and 49 mins
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At the outbreak of the War of 1812, America's prospects looked dismal. It was clear that the primary battlefield would be the open ocean but America's war fleet, only 20 ships strong, faced a practiced British navy of more than a thousand men-of-war. Still, through a combination of nautical deftness and sheer bravado, the American navy managed to take the fight to the British and turn the tide of the war.
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Arghhhh!!! Not meant for audio.
- By Jonathan Love on 07-07-12
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Commander
- The Life and Exploits of Britain's Greatest Frigate Captain
- By: Stephen Taylor
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
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Edward Pellew, captain of the legendary Indefatigable, was quite simply the greatest British frigate captain in the age of sail. Left fatherless at age eight, with a penniless mother and five siblings, Pellew fought his way from the very bottom of the navy to fleet command. Victories and eye-catching feats won him a public following. Yet he had a gift for antagonizing his better-born peers, and he made powerful enemies. Redemption came with his last command, when he set off to do battle with the Barbary States and free thousands of European slaves.
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OK
- By peter on 02-02-21
By: Stephen Taylor
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Igniting the American Revolution
- 1773-1775
- By: Derek W. Beck
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Few Americans know that the Revolutionary War did not begin with the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, but over a year earlier, in April 1775. Now historian Derek Beck draws on previously unpublished documents to tell the full story of the war before American independence - from both sides. Spanning the years 1773 to 1776, this audiobook sweeps listeners from the Boston Tea Party to the halls of Parliament - where Ben Franklin was almost run out of England for pleading on behalf of the colonies.
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Learned so much!
- By tracey68 on 10-15-17
By: Derek W. Beck
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Through the Perilous Fight
- Six Weeks That Saved the Nation
- By: Steve Vogel
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1814, the United States of America teetered on the brink of disaster. The war it had declared against Great Britain two years earlier appeared headed toward inglorious American defeat. In a fast-paced, character-driven narrative, Steve Vogel tells the story of this titanic struggle from the perspective of both sides. Like an epic novel, Through the Perilous Fight abounds with heroes, villains, and astounding feats of derring-do.
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History at its finest!
- By Anonymous User on 04-04-24
By: Steve Vogel
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A Rage for Glory
- The Life of Commodore Stephen Decatur, USN
- By: James Tertius de Kay
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed author James Tertius de Kay recounts the lifeof Commodore Stephen Decatur in the first new biography of the great naval hero in almost 70 years. De Kay draws on material unavailable to previous biographers to explore Decatur’s extraordinary life. From his burning of the Philadelphia to his capture of the HMS Macedonian, Decatur demonstrated his legendary bravery at every turn.
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Excellent writing and exciting story
- By mikey on 08-02-19
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The Battle of New Orleans
- By: Robert V. Remini
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The Battle of New Orleans sets its scenes with an almost unbelievably colorful cast of characters - a happenstance coalition of militia-men, regulars, untrained frontiersmen, free blacks, Indians, townspeople, and of course, Jackson himself. His glorious, improbable victory will catapult a once-poor, uneducated orphan boy into the White House and forge the beginning of a true nation.
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Pronunciation please!
- By Paul Randolph on 05-06-19
By: Robert V. Remini
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To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth
- The Epic Hunt for the South's Most Feared Ship—and the Greatest Sea Battle of the Civil War
- By: Tom Clavin, Phil Keith
- Narrated by: Joe Knezevich
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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On June 19, 1864, just off the coast of France, one of the most dramatic naval battles in history took place. On a clear day with windswept skies, the dreaded Confederate raider Alabama faced the Union warship Kearsarge in an all-or-nothing fight to the finish, the outcome of which would effectively end the threat of the Confederacy on the high seas.
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description of battle
- By Amazon Customer on 10-26-24
By: Tom Clavin, and others
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What listeners say about The War for All the Oceans
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Andrew
- 06-30-13
Narration is not that bad
I put off this book for months, due to the bad reviews of the narrator, which seemed to be corroborated by the sample from the first few paragraphs of the book. Eventually I decided to take a chance, and was glad I did.
The narrator gets into a decent rhythm, and his American accent is a useful contrast to the many other accents from French and British accounts of naval battles.
This book contained a lot of stories and historical detail that I was not previously aware of, despite having read several other histories of this period, including Napoleon's Wars by Charles Esdaile.
Overall, a satisfying story with a satisfying narrator.
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Overall
- Stephen
- 05-21-09
Vignettes of a bygone age
While this book is rather disjointed in its treatment of a fascinating age, there were nonetheless many historical tidbits that I found most interesting.
Sad to say, Patrick Lawlor - whom I enjoyed as the narrator of 'Three Cups of Tea" - has a real problem with British placenames, Scottish accents and French in general. These I found most distracting.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Glenn Anthony
- 05-27-18
A wonderful work of history, with one exception
Great book, top-notch narration (Lawton truly did the book justice). I greatly enjoyed all the detail, the personal stories that evinced so much research by the author. My *only* complaint is the short shrift given the most important battle of the time: Trafalgar. I’m fairly certain that the author had felt that Trafalgar had been done to death in other histories and did not want to waste the readers’ time, but the barely-one-page coverage of the battle itself does significantly detract from this otherwise most excellent work.
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- Jim In Texas!
- 10-09-11
Good (not great) book, horrible choice of narrator
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
This book does a decent job of covering many of the major naval aspects of the Napoleonic wars. It tends to concentrate on exerts of first person letters and diaries.
I was shocked that the actual Battle of Trafalgar rated only about a paragraph. It turns out that the authors have written a whole book on that one battle, so I guess they expect you buy that if you want any details.
Patrick Lawlor should not have been selected to read this book, and if he had any sense he would have turned the offer down.
Lawlor speaks perfect Midwestern American English. He is highly qualified to read books written in an American voice.
Sadly, this is a British book written principally about British and European people, very often quoting their own letters and reports.
For reason that only be classified as insane, the producers have Lawlor trying to mimic British, French, and other European accents.
Lawlor struggles with this task, and fails miserably. All his frequent attempts at accents wind up sounding like 'The Count' on Sesame Street!
It's all terribly distracting, doubly so for anyone who has enjoyed the magnificent performances by Patrick Tull reading the O'Brian books.
The disaster that is the voice performance of this audio book can not be overstated!
It's not Lawlor's fault, it is the fault of the publisher and editor. This audio edition should be withdrawn, and replaced with a proper British reader.
BTW, I'm a Texan who lived in England for the three years, not a snobby Brit.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The War for All the Oceans?
The accounts of the prison system in France.
How could the performance have been better?
Well, it could not have been worse! GET A PATRICK TULL TO READ THIS BOOK!
Did The War for All the Oceans inspire you to do anything?
Not buy British audio books read by Americans.
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Overall
- N. Haws
- 06-06-08
Pretty good, if disorganized
I enjoyed the The War for All the Oceans. There were a great deal of personal letters and diary entries that gave life to the battles and even everyday life of the soldiers and seamen.
As a reader of the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, I certainly found several familiar sequences and battles.
The main drawback of the book is a bit of a tendency to skip from one story to the next and back again. To a degree it can be explained as an attempt to maintain chronology, but some anecdotes could have been completed with much less inter-splicing of material.
Overall, I found the book both entertaining and informative. I would certainly recommend it to anyone with a love for the old British Navy, or those who have an interest in the Napoleonic wars.
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- Burton Mendel
- 01-07-24
Very well researched
Although a bit long, this is a very well researched book with many interesting and appropriate anecdotes
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- Horace
- 11-07-07
The Other Story about the Napoleonic Wars
The book covers the Napoleonic Wars from the perspective of the naval battles. It argues that the British blockade of much of Europe was the real reason for the downfall of Napoleon. The blockade gradually put more and more pressure on Napoleon, gradually reducing his options, and inevitably pushing him to make mistakes, which eventually lead to his downfall.
I think that this perspective is perhaps the dominate part of the truth, but still only part of the truth. Still I think it’s an important point, and the author, probably, meant no more than this.
The only fault is that it’s not that gripping a book. The style is a collection of short stories, which seems a good choose for this subject. But the narrative quality of the short stories seemed highly variable. Some were captivating, many were not.
Maps would help!
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9 people found this helpful
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- Robert
- 08-20-20
a human side of the war
Not as much a history of events as it is a history of ordinary sailors who fought the war. Whatever you know of the Nspoleanic wars on land and sea, this will be a valuable augmentation. You will find that in the years from then to now much has changed, except for the men fighting the wars. For them it remains the same.
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- FruhGeeLay
- 02-13-24
Entertaining, With Some Caveats.
+ Narrator. Don't listen to the elitists in the reviews. The narrator is great. Full of emotion and well acted.
+ Well structured. Timeline is sound and smaller stories strung together well.
+ Very entertaining.
-- The typical, tired, bad faith British worldview of the period. The writing inserts almost caricature or cartoon image of the main players in the mind's eye, it is so intense. Napoleon is short and surrounded by flies, always frowning, I'm sure. Hero British man of the chapter is glowing, chest puffed out. Warner Brothers. Motivations inserted onto Napoleon in worst faith, which surely can't be sourced, spoken as historical fact.
Overall, the keyword is entertaining. If you are looking for fun in the age of sail, this is a pretty good book. If you are looking for unbiased education, look elsewhere.
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- carl801
- 03-01-12
I really enjoyed this book!
Would you listen to The War for All the Oceans again? Why?
The authors obviously did a great deal of research into the letters and writings of people who actually took part in making this history. Most of the material they quote is not from the elites but from common sailors, wives, prostitutes, prisoners of war, young officers, criminals, women aboard British warships, impressed Americans, smugglers, parole breakers, and otherwise unknown and disreputable participants. For me, this brought historical events into sharp focus.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The War for All the Oceans?
No single memorable moment, rather it is the compilation of hundreds of individual moments, each as perfect as if captured in amber, that makes this history so compelling.
Which scene was your favorite?
One of the best stories about the British navy in the Napoleonic era that highlights the sensibilities of the age involves the visit of the Queen to a battleship just newly arrived back in England. The sailors, being sailors, had brought aboard hundreds of prostitutes, which was a common practice in the British navy at the time. The Captain ordered that they be kept below decks while the Queen toured the ship. But, the Queen, being the Queen, looked down into a passageway and saw these women staring up at her as if she were from another planet. She immediately ordered that the women be allowed to come up on deck so they could see what was going on. Priceless!
Any additional comments?
A lot of comments here about the reader, most of them negative. Too bad. I enjoyed Lawlor's narration, his comic French accent and terrible Scottish accent as well. His interpretations of the voices of all these common people who witnessed this conflict added immeasurably to their humanity and their realness.
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