Alfred Thayer: 47 books

Naval historians and maritime students alike will welcome this fascinating compendium of writings by one of the world's most influential and respected experts on naval warfare. Considered by many the greatest of all naval theorists, Admiral Mahan was revered by his contemporaries (including Kaiser...

This book gathers together various lectures that Mahan delivered between 1887 and 1911 at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. In this comprehensive work, Mahan provides a detailed review of the principles of naval strategy and explores a multitude of historical examples to illustrate...

The contents of this volume were first contributed as a chapter, under the title of "Major Operations, 1762-1783," to the "History of the Royal Navy," in seven volumes, published by Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston, and Company, under the general editorship of the late Sir William Laird Clowes. For permission...

When I was a boy, some years before I obtained my appointment in the navy, I spent many of those happy hours that only childhood knows poring over the back numbers of a British service periodical, which began its career in 1828, with the title Colburn's United Service Magazine; under which name, save...

This authoritative 1905 history, based on Mahan’s lectures as president of the Naval War College, develop his still-influential ideas about the role navies play among modern nations. Volume One begins with the antecedents of the war, such as the conditions in the colonies—and ends in the thick of the war, describing ocean warfare in the fall of 1812.

The naval operations described in the following pages extended, on the seaboard, over the Gulf of Mexico from Key West to the mouth of the Rio Grande; and inland over the course of the Mississippi, and its affluents, from Cairo, at the southern extremity of the State of Illinois, to the mouths of the...

This 1903 collection highlights Admiral Mahan’s still-influential ideas on the role navies play among modern nations. Includes “The Principles of Naval Administration,” “Principles Involved in the War Between Japan and Russia,” “The Strength of Nelson,” “The Value of the Pacific Cruise of the United States Fleet, 1908,” and “The Monroe Doctrine.”

When first asked to undertake that duty, the question naturally arose how to impart to the subject of Naval History an aspect which, in this very utilitarian age, should not be open to the ready reproach of having merely archæological interest, and possessing no practical value for men called upon to...

THE UNITED STATES LOOKING OUTWARD. August, 1890. Indications are not wanting of an approaching change in the thoughts and policy of Americans as to their relations with the world outside their own borders. For the past quarter of a century, the predominant idea, which has asserted itself successfully...

The life of Admiral Mahan spanned the age of sail; the Civil War, the War in the Pacific, and the Spanish-American War; the rise of steam power, and the international political dramas that would explode into the First World War. He tells his story in this 1907 memoir.

NELSON TEMPORARILY COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF IN THE MEDITERRANEAN.—RELIEVED BY LORD KEITH.—APPLIES TO RETURN TO ENGLAND ON ACCOUNT OF ILL HEALTH. AUGUST, August 1799—JUNE, 1800. AGE, 41. Upon Keith's departure, the command in the Mediterranean devolved upon Nelson, who for some time remained in doubt...

The Life of Nelson has been written so often, that an explanation—almost an apology—seems due for any renewal of the attempt; but, not to mention the attractiveness of the theme in itself, it is essential to the completeness and rounding off of the author's discussion of the Influence of Sea Power,...

The present work concludes the series of "The Influence of Sea Power upon History," as originally framed in the conception of the author. In the previous volumes he has had the inspiring consciousness of regarding his subject as a positive and commanding element in the history of the world. In the War...

THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR THE THEATRE OF THE WAR The war in South Africa has been no exception to the general rule that the origin of current events is to be sought in the history of the past, and their present course to be understood by an appreciation of existing conditions, which decisively control it....