Naval Blockades in Peace and War: An Economic History Since 1750 (review)

Lance Davis and Stanley Engerman have produced a well-written work addressing the role of blockades and the myriad factors that determine their effectiveness. Focusing on the economic impact of blockades, the coverage includes the role of international law, the impact of technology, the importance of neutrals, and diplomacy between blockading powers and neutrals. Through this synthesis, Davis and Engerman assert that, while blockades do have an impact in war, they have varying degrees of mostly limited success since the overall productive capacity of a nation and its military strength are more important.

The work comprises eight chapters excluding the introduction that examine blockades in the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic Age, the United States Civil War, and both world wars as well as blockades and sanctions in the postwar world. The last chapter provides a synopsis of the conclusions reached concerning each blockade and the factors that determined their effectiveness.

This work has numerous strengths that commend it to scholars and general readers alike. Among these is fine organization that provides for both easy reference and clarity in presenting a subject made very complex by the myriad inter-connected factors behind blockades. Chapters are oftentimes divided into a narrative portion on the blockade in question followed by an analysis of its impact on the economies of belligerents. The book also has as a key strength dozens of tables that provide economic data as well as figures on ships sunk and captured in blockades. Few works on this topic marshal together so much tabular data, which is useful for analysis. Finally, the inclusion of a section treating the post–World War II era is a topic not often explored in blockade works.

Perhaps the one difficulty of this work rests in the authors' claim that most blockades have limited military value in terms of their central goal of destroying a nation's economic capacity to wage war. This assertion seems problematic at times, as in the case of Britain's (later with the aid of the United States) World War I blockade of Germany. Davis and Engerman claim that the blockade merely contributed to the collapse of the German economy, particularly by reducing German food stores, and thus was not a decisive factor. While it is true that considerations other than the blockade account for part of the German economic decline, the authors seem to neglect the fact that countries at war need vastly more food and sundry supplies than in peacetime to sustain both the army and the civilian sector. Even a slight reduction due to a blockade can be telling over a protracted struggle, as it was with Germany.

Even so, this problem does not detract much from the overall value of this work. The topic of blockades has a rich historiography of varying viewpoints. Davis and Engerman have produced a work that contributes to our understanding of one of the most complex endeavors in both war and peace.