At War With The Smugglers: Career Of Dr. Arnold's Father
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Good
Few careers in the annals of British maritime history are as dramatic and morally charged as that of the man at the centre of At War with the Smugglers — the father of the celebrated Dr. Arnold of Rugby fame — whose relentless crusade against the illicit free-trade networks of Georgian and early Victorian England places him squarely at the frontline of one of the era's most dangerous professions. Rear-Admiral D. Arnold-Forster chronicles the life of this resolute revenue officer with vivid authority, painting a rich portrait of the cat-and-mouse battles fought across the fog-bound coastlines, treacherous inlets, and storm-lashed waters of Britain, where smuggling gangs wielded both economic power and violent force against the Crown's enforcers. Beyond the thrilling narrative of pursuit and confrontation, the work illuminates the broader social and political landscape of an age when smuggling was simultaneously condemned by law and romanticised by a public that happily consumed contraband tea, brandy, and lace. Arnold-Forster's account, written with the precision of a naval man and the affection of a descendant, bridges biography and maritime history in a way that reveals how the suppression of smuggling was not merely a matter of revenue protection, but a contest over the very authority of the state. For anyone captivated by the hidden currents beneath Britain's official histories, this singular account raises an irresistible question: how much of the nation's moral fibre was shaped by those who chose to enforce the law rather than evade it?
Author: Rear-Admiral D. Arnold-Forster, Cmg
Format: Hardback
Genre: Maritime history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Good
Few careers in the annals of British maritime history are as dramatic and morally charged as that of the man at the centre of At War with the Smugglers — the father of the celebrated Dr. Arnold of Rugby fame — whose relentless crusade against the illicit free-trade networks of Georgian and early Victorian England places him squarely at the frontline of one of the era's most dangerous professions. Rear-Admiral D. Arnold-Forster chronicles the life of this resolute revenue officer with vivid authority, painting a rich portrait of the cat-and-mouse battles fought across the fog-bound coastlines, treacherous inlets, and storm-lashed waters of Britain, where smuggling gangs wielded both economic power and violent force against the Crown's enforcers. Beyond the thrilling narrative of pursuit and confrontation, the work illuminates the broader social and political landscape of an age when smuggling was simultaneously condemned by law and romanticised by a public that happily consumed contraband tea, brandy, and lace. Arnold-Forster's account, written with the precision of a naval man and the affection of a descendant, bridges biography and maritime history in a way that reveals how the suppression of smuggling was not merely a matter of revenue protection, but a contest over the very authority of the state. For anyone captivated by the hidden currents beneath Britain's official histories, this singular account raises an irresistible question: how much of the nation's moral fibre was shaped by those who chose to enforce the law rather than evade it?