No publisher would now commission a five-volume history of the Royal Navy in the First World War. Indeed, Arthur J Marder’s epic study From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow was originally conceived on a much less ambitious scale.
More than half a century after its publication, it is widely regarded as the inescapable starting point for scholars working on early 20th-century British naval history. In his lifetime, Marder won praise from his academic peer group and from naval professionals alike. The foreword to a collection of essays marking his retirement was written by Admiral of the Fleet Lord Mountbatten.
Remarkably, Marder was not British, nor did he have personal experience of service at sea. He was an American scholar who was based in the United States for the greater part of his career, making visits to London to gather material. To those who were curious how he came to choose his theme, Marder simply responded that ‘nature abhors a vacuum and there was this fat subject lying about to be picked up.’
Archaeology as immersive historical simulation