Why did a cruiser war produce a battleship obsession?

The war used protected and armoured cruisers in fleet combat, blockade, commerce capture, troop escort, overseas reinforcement, and naval diplomacy. Yet the United States emerged with a strong institutional and political appetite for battleships rather than simply expanding the kind of mobile cruiser force that had done so much of the work. The question remains open because prestige, isolationism, battle-fleet theory, and the desire to display concentrated power can all explain the shift. The prompt invites viewers to compare what the war required with what American naval policy chose to build afterward.