The Naval Route to the Abyss

Book excerpt: The Anglo-German rivalry in battleship building at the beginning of the twentieth century has been blamed by many as a major cause of the First World War, yet ‘the Great Naval Race’ has not received the attention that its notoriety would merit. This volume facilitates an understanding of how the two parties interacted by providing a comprehensive survey of existing scholarship, as well as important primary sources from a range of archives. By offering German documents in their original text and in English translation, this book makes the German role in this conflict accessible to English speakers for the first time.