How institutions made Mahan and Corbett seem opposed

In Alex Clarke's classroom exercise, students received anonymous passages from Mahan and Corbett and repeatedly assigned them to the wrong author. The passages challenged the familiar stereotypes. American enthusiasm for battleships encouraged readers to select Mahan's arguments for them while neglecting his treatment of cruisers. Fisher's interests likewise helped circulate Corbett's writing on trade and cruising. The apparent opposition partly reflects what influential readers wanted from the books. Comparing the original passages exposes the difference between an author's arguments and their later reputation.