Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Seapower upon History is well known to students of naval history and strategy, but his other writings are often dismissed as irrelevant to today's problems. This collection of five of Mahan's essays, along with Benjamin Armstrong's informative introductions, illustrates why Mahan's work remains relevant to the 21st century and how it can help develop our strategic thinking. People misunderstand Mahan, the editor argues, because they have read only what others say about him, not what Mahan wrote himself. Armstrong's analysis is derived directly from Mahan's own writings. From the challenges of bureaucratic organization and the pit falls of staff duty, to the development of global strategy and fleet composition, to illustrations of effective combat leadership, Armstrong demonstrates that Mahan's ideas continue to provide today's readers with a solid foundation to address the challenges of a rapidly globalizing world.It is probably expected that as an American blogger on naval history and naval strategy, I would be a big fan of Alfred Thayer Mahan. The truth is, I am not. AT Mahan may be known as America's great strategist, but he takes subjects I love like naval history and naval strategy and does what I consider impossible - he makes the subjects boring to read. While reading most of his books, I'll find myself on paragraph seven and sentence ten on some various subject screaming at AT Mahan to "get to the f-in point already you long winded...". AT Mahan's style of writing books is one where he goes so far out of the way to be so precise in what he is saying that it's like driving from Maine to Montana to get to New Jersey. With that said, some of my favorite articles are written by AT Mahan, but in every single case those articles are for periodicals, not his books.
21st Century Mahan is a very clever book. The book combines five articles written by AT Mahan for periodicals specifically for public audiences, thus presenting AT Mahan in a way that is more approachable by those like me who can get annoyed by his difficult to read classical writing style. All five articles are very well written, but they are also relevant to the discussions surrounding the US Navy today. Benjamin Armstrong is a Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy today, so the author intentionally draws no conclusions from Mahan's work and applies them to current events. And yet, because of the presentation and delivery within the book, the reader can't help but think about Mahan in a 21st century context applicable today. I am not sure if that was how LCDR Armstrong intended to write the book, or how the USNI editors helped arrange the book, but it is very clever and works well.
I really enjoyed the book. It helped that I had never read any of the five AT Mahan essay's covered in the book, and it also helped that I enjoyed each of the essay's. In particular the way the chapter involving Naval Administration and Warfare, Some General Principles came together early in the book was so well done I had to read it again with my yellow marker I was so impressed. To give one a sense of just how much easier this book is to read on Alfred Thayer Mahan than most works of AT Mahan, my 18 year old daughter actually finished the book when I asked her to read it just for an opinion. I assure you, if this was a typical Mahan book, she would not have made it past chapter 2.
If you are looking for a book with a strong authors opinion that draws conclusions for you in applying AT Mahan to the 21st century, this is not the right book for you. This book asks readers to draw their own conclusions. That detail actually defines the style of the book better than any other detail of the book, because the author doesn't tell the reader what to think, rather asks the reader to think for themselves.
Final note on this book. Availability of this book at Amazon for the paper copy has been hit and miss, but the electronic versions are always available. I note this because I have purchased two copies of this book since its release in late June and both copies arrived over 2 weeks later, so if you are expecting this book to be a last second quick gift idea, my experience suggests you should expect delays. With that said, there does appear to be copies available on Amazon again today.
