Description: How, for just over a century, Britain ensured it would not face another Napoleon Bonaparte--manipulating European powers while building a global maritime empire
Review Quotes: "[History] conveyed in bracing prose supported by telling quotations and superb illustrations. . . . The real lesson of Mr. Lambert's highly instructive book is how hegemons can lose the respect of adversaries over time."--Brendan Simms, Wall Street Journal
"In his fresh new book, Professor Lambert delivers indeed a commanding reassessment of Britain's strategic posture in the long nineteenth century. With scholarly rigor and narrative finesse, Lambert charts the course of British foreign policy from the aftermath of Waterloo to the eve of the Great War, arguing that the island nation's deft orchestration of European affairs forestalled the emergence of another continental hegemon in the mold of Napoleon Bonaparte."--Jean-Thomas Nicole, Cipher Brief An Engelsberg Ideas Book of the Year 2025 "With the future of NATO being questioned as never before, policymakers should read this superb book as a masterclass in the vital areas of strategic acuity, domination of the oceans, and the deployment of hard power. It was no coincidence that Britain managed to deter attack from any major power for almost a century after Waterloo, and Andrew Lambert shows how it was done by far-sighted statesmen in an era of intense Great Power rivalry."--Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny "A masterful and original account of British grand strategy in the century after Waterloo, stressing the role of diplomacy and naval power, and focusing on the wars that weren't fought as much as those that were."--Lawrence Freedman, author of Command