Castles of Steel

Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea

By: Robert K. Massie

Narrated by: Richard Matthews

In a work of extraordinary narrative power, filled with brilliant personalities and vivid scenes of dramatic action, Robert K. Massie, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and Dreadnought, elevates to its proper historical importance the role of sea power in the winning of the Great War.

The predominant image of this first world war is of mud and trenches, barbed wire, machine guns, poison gas, and slaughter. A generation of European manhood was massacred, and a wound was inflicted on European civilization that required the remainder of the twentieth century to heal.

But with all its sacrifice, trench warfare did not win the war for one side or lose it for the other. Over the course of four years, the lines on the Western Front moved scarcely at all; attempts to break through led only to the lengthening of the already unbearably long casualty lists.

For the true story of military upheaval, we must look to the sea. On the eve of the war in August 1914, Great Britain and Germany possessed the two greatest navies the world had ever seen. When war came, these two fleets of dreadnoughts—gigantic floating castles of steel able to hurl massive shells at an enemy miles away—were ready to test their terrible power against each other.

Their struggles took place in the North Sea and the Pacific, at the Falkland Islands and the Dardanelles. They reached their climax when Germany, suffocated by an implacable naval blockade, decided to strike against the British ring of steel. The result was Jutland, a titanic clash of fifty-eight dreadnoughts, each the home of a thousand men.

When the German High Seas Fleet retreated, the kaiser unleashed unrestricted U-boat warfare, which, in its indiscriminate violence, brought a reluctant America into the war. In this way, the German effort to “seize the trident” by defeating the British navy led to the fall of the German empire.

Ultimately, the distinguishing feature of Castles of Steel is the author himself. The knowledge, understanding, and literary power Massie brings to this story are unparalleled. His portrayals of Winston Churchill, the British admirals Fisher, Jellicoe, and Beatty, and the Germans Scheer, Hipper, and Tirpitz are stunning in their veracity and artistry.

Castles of Steel is about war at sea, leadership and command, courage, genius, and folly. All these elements are given magnificent scope by Robert K. Massie’s special and widely hailed literary mastery.

©2003 Robert K. Massie (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A classic [that] covers superbly a whole era...engrossing in its glittering gallery of characters.” (Chicago Sun-Times)

“[Told] on a grand scale...Massie [is] a master of historical portraiture and anecdotage.” (The Wall Street Journal)

Good book, fantastic aurhour, excellent narrator.

Highly recommend. Unfortunatly the audio engineer left in the double takes of narrator, Needs fixing.

Fantastic History and Narration

The best naval history of the Great War out there, the narration is also top tier and really puts you in the middle of these events

Well Done

This is the whole story of WWI sea war. Long detailed but fully Captivating. Well done.

Massie is a true literary and historical genius

After reading any of his works, you will be entertained and educated. A pleasure to have heard.

Audible should remaster but story worth a listen

1. Production--Not only are there various spots where sentence is annoyingly repeated, but in Chapter 21, during a naval battle scene, it skips frustratingly past a key scene. Audible needs to re-master the book to fix this.
2. Narrator---Richard Matthews does a good job narrating and keeps story flowing despite the headaches described above and even the dry parts. Tis only reason I give performance 4 stars
3. Massie and his story:
A. My knowledge of this area was very little--knew a little about Goeben from Guns of August but he goes into more detail, especially with regards to the subsequent courtmartial...loved Milne's quote! Rest I knew of WWI focused more on diplomacy, air battles, tanks, and the trench warfare. Knew very little of WWI naval history -subs and Jutland. This is why I picked this up.
B. Massie starts off in great detail on the personalities...I have a feeling I missed out on more of the leadup and creation of the fleets as I didn't read Dreadnought(would be great if Audible adds it). He puts in quite a bit of extraneous material and I can see why someone said he needed an editor--trying too hard to be Tuchman. However...that said, later chapters go into his personal views/biases of these men so the early character backgrounds lend some support to his views. For example, describing Beatty as a browbeaten cuckold whose Lady MacBeth wife pushes his career comes across harsh until you get to chapter 34 and he lays out even harsher criticism making it clear his distaste for the Admiral.
C. His battle scenes are a bit drawn out, nowhere near as exciting as Neptune's Inferno(if you haven't listened, pick it up!) but he goes into great detail of the decision making.
D. If you are interested in leadership, like I am, this is why he is worth a listen. The actions themselves are overall very unimportant in history of WWI, but he explains each choice the commanders on both sides faced, all their options based on what they knew.
His analysis is spot on, if a little biased.
E, For one thing while he could have done some cutting, glad he included Churchill's complete response to one of Fisher's threats to resign. Beautiful prose that could be included in any business writing course!

Don't let the editing dissuade you

This is a fantastic book about an incredibly complex time written by someone who clearly knows the subject, read with enthusiasm by a quality narrator. The single biggest downfall of this title is whatever happened on the editing floor post production. More times than I could count lines would be read, paused, then read again. I understand that in recording booths this is common practice but generally when that happens, one of the two takes is cut, which seems to be the step left out by the behind the scenes crew. Again, as the title says, please don't let this detail keep you from this book. If its a subject that you're truly interested in, it can easilly be overlooked.

Annoying narrator

I love this book and have for years. The problem with the audiobook is the narrator. He obviously British, but tries to affect an "American" accent with reading quotes from Americans and a "German" accent for quotes from Germans. The American accent is godawful and takes you right out of the book. The German one is cartoonish and I imagine it would be offensive to a German. There are enough quotes and this happens often enough to ruin the audiobook. I had to return it.
The hell of it is....his normal British accent and voice perfectly fine. It would have been just fine if he used that for the entire book. Seriously, what is the point of switching accents? You end up with a situation where every single American sounds exactly the same and every German sounds the same.....even though you are reading quotes from different people.

<Sigh> how many great books have been botched by crap narrator performances on here.

We should all demand that, henceforth, only Grover Gardner or Michael Kramer should be allowed to record all audiobooks....forever. :-)

A true pleasure to listen to

Perfect for history buffs or anyone interested in an epic story of daring and intrigue

Great book

Very informative book which is extremely well read. I very highly recommend others listed in.

Much more than just the Battle of Jutland

Massie sheds much light on the totally of British naval activity during the war, much of which I was unaware. He covers other lesser known North Sea engagements, action in the North and South Atlantic, as well as the west coast of Chile. Mini-bios of the key political and naval players are provided and the narrator, Richard Matthews, mimics their accent in his excellent reading of the text. All in all and excellent book and narration for those who want to go beyond Jutland..