The Press Gang

By Nicholas Rogers,

Book cover of The Press Gang: Naval Impressment and its opponents in Georgian Britain

Book description

Nicholas Rogers' book gives the reader a detailed and illuminating insight into the world and ways of the press gang. The press gang, and its forcible recruitment of sailors to man the Royal Navy in times of war, acquired notoriety for depriving men of their liberty and carrying them away…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Press Gang as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I love how Nicholas Rogers recreates a lost world in this book. This is a world where it was not at all strange for a man to be abducted from a seaside tavern by a gang of men and thrown into a British warship to serve the king.

The best book on naval impressment in Britain, this book shows how this form of forced service had a deep social impact. I especially appreciate the impressive social research that illustrates how impressment devastated families and drove whole seaport communities into rioting and other violent forms of resistance.   

Want books like The Press Gang?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Press Gang.

Browse books like The Press Gang

Book cover of Young Men and the Sea: Yankee Seafarers in the Age of Sail
Book cover of The Bloody Flag: Mutiny in the Age of Atlantic Revolution
Book cover of The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,187

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the British Royal Navy, presidential biography, and London?

London 862 books