Execution of Admiral John Byng as a Microhistory of Eighteenth-Century Britain

According to Voltaire''s Candide, Admiral John Byng''s 1757 execution went forward to ''encourage the others''. Of course, the story is more complicated. This microhistorical account upon a macro-event presents an updated, revisionist, and detailed account of a dark chapter in British naval history. Asking ''what was Britain like the moment Byng returned to Portsmouth after the Battle of Minorca (...