Author Description

Valued for its condensation of 142 years of American politics, this book is now one of the Naval Institute Press "Classics" series. Originally published in 1939, this work was the first to synthesize and analyze, in broad historical perspective, the ideas and forces that produced the ships, traditions, and doctrines of the US Navy. From a Mahanian perspective, the authors examine the roles and attitudes of those who shaped American naval policy, identifying crucial technological changes and the men who made them, and evaluate the strategies and tactics of the US Navy from the Revolution to the First World War. The introduction describes the turbulent atmosphere in which the book was first published as Franklin Roosevelt prepared the nation for war, and explains how the book served as a response to the pacifists, isolationists, and anti-navy critics who objected to a large battleship navy. It includes a discussion of the book's original sources as well as modern perspectives of the work.