Atlantic and around the British Isles, and the Royal Navy lay mines off the German exits to the sea, while keeping a constant at-a-distance blockade. What should have been a strong point in Hard Aground—extensive use of illustrations—turns out to be confusing and jarring. Here is where design has an unwanted impact. Using a typeface and size similar to the narrative’s text in illustration captions unnecessarily disrupts the flow of Jampoler’s narrative. This is not a one-off, but a constant throughout the book. Having noted the design flaw and the mixed impact of the asides, Jampoler’s unique focus on an era that changed the United States Navy deserves close attention during this latest era of Great Power competition at sea and on land, as well as in the air, in space, and in cyberspace. John Grady Fairfax, Virginia Conquistadores: A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest by Fernando Cervantes (Viking Random House, New York, 2021, 512pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 978-1-10198126-9; $35hc) The dust jacket of Fernando Cervantes’s fascinating new book depicts ocean waves against a darkened background. It is an appropriate metaphor for the conquistadores, those 16th-century Spanish noblemen whose caravels bore them forth to slaughter and gold. The image conjures the lines of Cuba’s great national poet José Martí: “I hate the sea, which without anger supports on its complacent back, the ship that with music and flowers, brings a tyrant.” Conquistadores have gotten a lot of bad press over the years, beginning with the compassionate cleric Bartolomé de Las Casas bearing witness to their depredations, to a 2016 article in the Economist about Peruvian poverty titled “Let’s Sue the Conquistadores.” Cervantes, a Mexican professor of early modern studies at the University of Bristol, believes a more balanced perspective is overdue. He is no apologist, but writes that it is “important that we do not reduce the richly complex world of the conquistadores to a sweeping caricature.” He brings impressive credentials to this task, including numerous articles and books on Hispanic intellectual and religious history. This book is not a complete survey of the conquistadores, as there were hundreds of them. Rather, it is an exploration of the political, religious, and intellectual influences that created them. Cervantes declares that our “understandable sense of revulsion” at their bloody deeds, “runs the risk of hiding from us fundamental aspects of the late-medieval religious culture” that defined their worldview. He methodically details the components of that !"#$%&"'()$*#%+$,(-"&./"+0(1(!"#$%&"'(23/%+$"'!"#!$#%&" '(%)*&+,-!./#!0#&"!"/,1)!012,&!*()1-3!4455!"/)#(3/!61,"-%+7 •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•!!...7(&=31-3/%+7#)3 SeaHistory.org 75