From Monitor to Missile Boat: Coast Defence Ships and Coastal Defence since 1860

From Monitor to Missile Boat: Coast Defence Ships and Coastal Defence since 1860, George Paloczi-Horvath (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1996) 160 pp., ISBN 1-55750-270-6, US$59.95. Historically, those nations that could afford to maintain large fleets could intimidate or lay off the shores and disrupt the economy of countries which could not or did not make the substantial investment in large numbers of first rate ships. This was especially true during the late eighteenth century up until the midnineteenth century, when the British Navy "ruled the waves". The biggest change occurred during the American Civil War, with the deployment of the first steam-driven ironclads. Suddenly small countries could purchase a few ships which could threaten or drive off those of a dominant sail navy