Vodka at Versailles

Very well done. Nicolson examines the Battle of Trafalgar as a meta-event in the transition from the understanding of warfare and masculinity from 18th century gentility to the harder edges of the 19th century's British imperial expansion. He frames the story by placing the reader at a certain distance in miles and time as the opposing fleets draw closer. By the time the British and Combined Fleet clash, Nicolson has created the coherent picture that explains the battle. This applies to both its immediate consequence (Napoleon could not cross the Channel) and those effects that stretched into the future, and which were only dealt a deathblow by the trenches of World War I. Recommend.