Friedman, a naval analyst, historian, and author who has written books on the design and development of different US warship types, Royal Navy destroyers, and British aircraft carriers, details the roles of British cruisers in defending trade routes, supporting the battle fleet, and policing the empire during the radio or wireless age. With many b&w photos and diagrams, and including cruise minelayers and escort and command cruisers of the 1960s and 1970s, he describes various classes, such as the Bristol, Dartmouth, Chatham, Birmingham, Calypso, Dido, and Emerald classes; the HMS Adelaide; the "Atlantic Cruiser"; and World War I rearmament, aircraft, anti-aircraft weapons, and experiences. He discusses treaties such as the Washington Conference and Geneva Conference in 1927; the Kent and London classes and modernization; smaller cruisers; the HMS Exeter; the 1930 London Treaty and its cruisers and alternatives; the 1936 treaty, rearmament, and the Fiji class; and World War II designs and changes, including to radar and increased close-range anti-aircraft weapons, and the introduction of degaussing coils for magnetic mines. He ends with post-war cruisers, new weapons and systems, fleet modernization, the Tiger class, the emergency cruiser, and gun and missile cruisers during the missile age. Battlecruisers associated with the last generation of large armored cruisers are excluded. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)