War, Nationalism, and the British Sailor, 1750-1850

The common presumption in the writing of British history has been to cast the seafarer as somehow peripheral to the nation as a whole. The author argues that this has deterred work on sailors and nationalism. Consequently, this is the first book to systematically integrate 'Jack Tar,' the common seaman, into the cultural history of modern Britain, treating him not as an occasional visitor from the ocean, but as an important part of national life.