BBC Empire of the Seas

A tie-in to a major BBC TV series presented by Dan Snow, is written by one of the nation's foremost naval historians, and tells the story of how the Royal Navy shaped the politics, culture and economy of Britain, leaving its imprint on everything from our landscape, to our democracy and even our very identity. At its peak, it became the driving force behind the spread of a system of values which would change the world forever. And then it lost it all. In "Empire of the Seas", Brian Lavery re-injects the romance into Britain's seafaring past. He discusses the hidden human stories behind the celebrated sea-battles and also provides a warts-and-all expose of the darker chapters in the Navy's past, including its role in slavery and the spread of disease. The book is illustrated with a superlative collection of artworks and photographs from the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Naval Museum and private collections.

这套纪录片的题目是《海洋帝国》（Empire of the Seas），讲述英国皇家海军四百年的历史，其中各位有所听闻的重大历史事件——从击败无敌舰队到特拉法加海战和日德兰大海战——本片都有所涉及。但这又不是一部纯粹的军事史，因为在这四集内容里，你还可以看到英国皇家海军这台庞大的战争机器，是如何对英国国内的政治经济制度施加影响的，例如国债的发行、所得税的征收、英格兰银行的成立等等。