The 24-Gun Frigate Pandora Book

Despite being over a hundred years old, Mahan's classic text on the importance of sea power in wartime is both accessible to the modern reader and applicable to modern naval thinking. In fact, I've been finding that many of these "ancient" historical texts are far more enjoyable than some of their contemporary counterparts (see my review of Henry Adams' History of the United States, Vols. I & II). Mahan takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of the wars between the years 1660 and 1783, focusing on the role that sea power played in all of them. Although some of these wars were mostly confined to the continent of Europe, Mahan makes a potent case that in all of them the control of the seas played a critical role in the outcome of those wars. Mahan deftly shows through example how Louis XIV's designs for continental Europe were completely frustrated by England's control of the seas, which brought to England sources of revenue far in excess of her island-bound resources. He spends the last 200 pages going over the whole naval operations surrounding the American Revolution, looking at and extending beyond North America. As great as this book is, there are a two things that hold it back from a five-star rating. The first is his descriptions of actual naval battles. It was difficult to piece together what was going on because of Mahan's extensive use of nautical terms such as "starboard tack," "leeward," "windward," etc. He did go over these in his introductory chapter, but briefly and not in a way that they would stick out in an average reader's mind. Thus, the naval battles are good for people with a knowledge of nautical terms and naval tactics, but not the average reader. The other is his use of racial theories in his introductory chapter pointing out why certain countries fared better than others in terms of sea power. While this was the prevalent theory of historiography during Mahan's era, it is still disgusting and disconcerting to the modern reader's ears. Just plug your nose and try to get through it quickly. All in all, this is a fine read on how naval superiority is critical to the success of nearly any country at war.