Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Interest of America in Sea Power, Present and Future is a collection of essays rather than one of his larger histories. The shorter pieces are especially useful for understanding Mahan and finding quotations that can frame chapters in later writing. Their concentrated arguments provide a different route into his thought from the long-form histories. For readers approaching sea-power theory, the essays may be the more immediately engaging starting point.
Notable Point · 12:08-13:16
Reading Mahan through his essays
Mahan's essay collection offers a compact route into his ideas and a source of quotations for later historical writing.