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Reviewed by:
  • Naval Blockades in Peace and War: An Economic History Since 1750
  • Harold James
Naval Blockades in Peace and War: An Economic History Since 1750. By Lance E. Davis and Stanley L. Engerman (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2006) 453 pp. $91.00

Economic warfare is an important, but usually neglected, part of modern war. Davis and Engerman have written a stimulating book that shows how an understanding of economics can enrich legal and military history. They provide a series of detailed case studies of naval blockades, from the American War of Independence through 1812 and the Civil War to the two World Wars of the twentieth century. In each case, they examine the role of productive power, as well as of technology and of military practices. Generally, the blockade breakers had the upper hand in this story. Even in the Civil War, in which the South had a clear economic inferiority that was sharpened by the effects of a blockade, the substitution of steam for sail allowed for a continuation of blockade "running" by the Confederacy.

The authors also show how important convoys were in breaking the German blockade during the twentieth-century wars, as well as how long it took the United States in World War II to relearn this simple lesson from World War I. The overall theme that emerges is that defensive anti-blockade measures are effective in modern warfare. The power of the blockade—and of economic warfare in general—is something of an illusion, often promoted by decision makers who want to try to minimize the costs of the conflicts that they are proposing.

It would be interesting to develop this theme beyond the naval area into the context of land blockades—that of the Allied powers against Germany and its allies in the two World Wars, or that of the nato blockade of Serbia in the 1990s. How much less effective were land blockades, in which technology plays less of a role than politics? That story would complement the fascinating analysis already given by Davis and Engerman.

Harold James
Princeton University
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