Introduction

The growing literature on British culture indicates that the experience of war shaped the consciousness and identity of the British nation. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book focuses on those ways of thinking that directly affected the provision of naval power. It excludes the sea-going officers and seamen, who have been the subject of numerous studies and deserve another. The book concentrates on the thinking that affected the organisation that provided sea power; the Admiralty, the Navy and Victualling Offices in London, the dock and victualling yards along the River Thames, the River Medway, and along the south coast of England. It aims to relocate the beginnings of that 'revolution in government' to the late 1790s and to attach it to the brother of Jeremy, Samuel Bentham, who was appointed to the new post of Inspector General of Naval Works in 1796.