The navies of the industrial and post-industrial world offer a rich field of study, linking new and old nations, conflict, technology, diplomacy, society and much more. Few aspects of the recent past have been unaffected by the ability of nations to use the sea for political ends. The naval history of the past 150 years is at once the bedrock of naval education, doctrine and strategy development, a critical element in the wider field of historical scholarship and, in recent years, a subject of growing interest for popular audiences beyond the service/academic community from which it initially sprang. This collection provides an overview of the state of the art in the early 21st century, showing where naval historians are working and how current approaches differ from those of earlier periods.