Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Introduction
The Admiralty War Staff, 1912-1918: An Analysis of the Personnel
The Establishment of the War Staff and its Work before the Outbreak of War in August 1914
The Churchill-Battenberg Regime, August - October 1914
The Churchill-Fisher Regime, October 1914 - May 1915
The Balfour-Jackson Regime, May 1915 - November 1916
The Jellicoe Era, November 1916 - December 1917
The Geddes-Wemyss Regime, December 1917 - November 1918
Conclusion
Appendix A: Senior Admiralty and Staff Officials
Appendix B: The Admiralty Telephone Directories, 1914 - 1918
Appendix C: Administrative Development of the Admiralty War Staff, 1912 - 1918
Bibliography

Reviews

Truly an agenda-setting work. It is also valuable for its extensive references to primary sources.
*WARSHIP*

Not only revises our understanding of the Naval Staff's qualifications and competence: it provides an important reassessment of many aspects of the Admiralty's conduct of the naval war, one that challenges conventional wisdom on several counts. [...] This is a fine piece of scholarship, recommended especially to those who focus on operational history to the exclusion of policy, planning, implementation, and logistics.
*JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES*

A superb study that should grace the bookshelf of any serious scholar of the Royal Navy of the period. [...] Essential to any scholar working in the field.
*THE NORTHERN MARINER*

Black has blown aside some of the fog of history and shed light on the accomplishments of a group of mostly overlooked and underestimated men.
*NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL*

Black's excellent book demonstrates that the staff was larger, more professional and more important. Ultimately an effective, if not always efficient, staff was essential to the successful prosecution of total war in the twentieth century.
*ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW*

[An] elegantly written and well-researched volume. [...] This is an illuminating study that will have a major impact on histories of the First World War.
*HISTORY*

A first-class study of a major subject, whose findings challenge all standard accounts. [...] Black's monograph is the product of a rare combination of diligent and original research in primary sources, a comprehensive and accurate reading of the existing scholarly literature on his subject, a sophisticated historical sensibility, and a writer's gift for clear and engaging exposition. It replaces the existing interpretation of the history of Britain's naval staff during the First World War with one that is much more complete and satisfying. [It] is an exemplar of the power of serious scholarly inquiry.
*INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MARITIME HISTORY*

For Naval enthusiasts it's essential stuff [which] rescues from oblivion a fine and unjustly traduced body of men.
*THE MAIL ON SUNDAY*