Power at Sea, Volume 3: A Violent Peace, 1946-2006
A nonacademic narrative about the major navies of the world during the past century, this volume and its two companion volumes divide into periods symbolized by dominant ships: the battleship, aircraft carrier, and nuclear submarine.Rose, an author of specialty naval histories who served in the U.S. Navy in the 1950s, instills clarity about a tension that animates any modern navy, that between its national strategy and the ships necessary to effect that strategy. Since ships inherently fix a strategy for years into the future, contentious theorizing erupts over the optimal vessels to construct. Rose reprises this intranaval conflict in each tome, incorporating a nation's domestic interests, which are inevitably involved because of the great expense of navies. He debuts with 1890s American theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan, the von Clausewitz of naval strategy who profoundly influenced the pre-World War I admirals of Britain and Germany. Their fixation on fleets of dreadnoughts, which echoes in contemporary popular interest (Castles of Steel, by Robert Massie, 2003), was proved by events to be misplaced: the Battle of Jutland was indecisive, whereas the prosaic blockade strangled Germany. However, the demise of big-gunned leviathans was resisted by their naval champions of the interwar years until experience of the first years of World War II relegated those not sunk by airpower to supporting roles. Discussing postwar debates about the aircraft carrier's power and vulnerability, Rose maintains his theme of strategy's continual interplay with technology's relentless advance amid his attention to key parameters of naval effectiveness, such as maintenance and crew morale. An ambitious opus, Rose's set rewards explorers of sea power's instrumentality in international affairs and conflict.Gilbert TaylorCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.