Reviewed by: The Execution of Admiral John Byng as a Microhistory of Eighteenth-Century Britain by Joseph J. Krulder Evan Wilson Joseph J. Krulder, The Execution of Admiral John Byng as a Microhistory of Eighteenth-Century Britain (London: Routledge, 2021). Pp. 294; 7 b/w illus. $170.00 cloth. In March 1756, Admiral John Byng was ordered to take ten ships of the line to the Mediterranean to prevent the French from capturing the British naval base of Port Mahon on Minorca. The Admiralty had not equipped him appropriately for the job, as his fleet was too small and had sailed too late. When he arrived at Gibraltar, he learned that the French had already landed a large force on Minorca. Army officers told Byng that the British garrison there would not be able to hold out very long. Byng wrote a letter to ministers in London explaining that his mission was likely hopeless, and then set sail for Minorca. Encountering the French fleet near the island, Byng led his ships into battle. In a confused action, the French acquitted themselves well and caused significant casualties in the part of the British fleet that managed to engage. Byng handled the action poorly, selecting an overly complicated tactical plan and then failing to issue timely orders that could have brought about a more decisive result. Nevertheless, when the French fleet sailed off at the end of the day, Byng was left in command of the waters around Minorca. Yet he made no attempt to relieve the British garrison or even to establish communication with them, assuming their cause to be lost. Instead, he summoned a council of war and leaned on it to produce his desired result: the council concluded that lifting the siege was hopeless and that it was essential to retreat to Gibraltar. The garrison held out for another five weeks on its own, no thanks to Byng. Byng was relieved of his command and sent back to London, where he was immediately arrested. The loss of Minorca was the major national political story, and it contributed to the fall of the government in November. Pamphleteers and [End Page 510] balladeers published competing interpretations of Byng's conduct, with some arguing he had been set up to fail and others backing the charges against him. The court martial convened on December 28, 1756. It was tasked with considering whether Byng had done "his utmost" during the battle and to assist the garrison. Byng was active and occasionally effective in his own defense, but he struggled to overcome testimony from the general in command of the garrison that had surrendered. In fact, Byng could have and should have done much more with the sea control he wielded after the battle. After four weeks of testimony, the court found Byng guilty on both counts and sentenced him to death as proscribed by the articles of war. There were strong hints, however, that the court hoped that the king, parliament (Byng was an MP), or some other mechanism might intervene to prevent the sentence from being carried out. But the king considered Byng a coward and let the sentence stand, and all attempts to save Byng by his friends and allies (including, rather unhelpfully, Voltaire and the French commanders-in-chief) failed. A firing squad executed Byng on the quarterdeck of HMS Monarch on March 14, 1757. The two preceding paragraphs are what Joseph J. Krulder would call the political and military narrative of Byng's execution. He rejects this narrative as insufficient, and indeed inaccurate. For Krulder, to understand Byng's execution, we need to understand "what was going on in Britain" when Byng was arrested (xiii). Byng was at the center of several broader national debates raging in ballads and newspapers. While commanding the Channel Fleet in 1755, Byng captured nearly three hundred prizes, which created an atmosphere of jealousy that contributed to his downfall. Similarly, Byng's wealth (he was the son of a naval hero and peer) made him an object of moral outrage amid the poor harvests of 1755 and 1756. Food riots joined anti-impressment riots and anti-Byng riots to create an atmosphere of violence...