The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence

Mahan, A. T. (Alfred Thayer), 1840-1914Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8
Word count
568K words
Chapters
57

Tags

English Originals World HistoryMilitary Historical ReappraisalMilitary StrategyStrategic AnalysisNaval StrategyNaval HistoryWar of IndependenceMilitary CommandersAcademic Monograph

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence by MahanAuthor: Mahan, A. T. (Alfred Thayer), 1840-1914,Language: English, Class: E201: History: America: Revolution (1775-1783), Release Date: Aug 27, 2005

Editor's review

This is Mahan's specialized study of naval operations in the American War of Independence, focusing on the major naval actions rather than offering a general history. Mahan, renowned for his work on naval strategy, continues here his habit of examining campaigns from the perspective of command of the sea, analyzing fleet movements, blockades, cooperation, and geographical conditions together, so that readers can see how naval warfare affected events on land. As a public-domain ebook released by Project Gutenberg, it preserves an earlier style of historical writing: dense in narrative, crowded with names of people and ships, and argumentative at the strategic level, without aiming for popular storytelling. Its value lies in providing a framework for revisiting the War of Independence from a maritime perspective, suited to readers willing to read slowly with a map at hand. If approached as a text of strategic analysis rather than light historical reading, the rewards will be clearer; while reading, pay attention to how the author explains the causal relationship between sea power and the outcomes of campaigns.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and introduction first to sort out the sequence of major naval actions the author selects.
  2. Prepare a map of the North American east coast during the War of Independence and consult ports and routes as you read.
  3. After each campaign chapter, summarize its strategic conclusion in your own words.
  4. When encountering dense names of people and ships, you may skip the details at first and grasp the main thread of fleet movements and blockades.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
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  35. 35
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  37. 37
  38. 38
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  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
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  44. 44
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  46. 46
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  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
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FAQ

Is this book suitable for readers without a background in naval history? It can be read, but it requires patience. The book is dense with names of people, ships, and campaign details, and its argument is at the strategic level, so without a foundation it is easy to get lost. It is advisable to first understand the general timeline of the War of Independence, then read slowly with a map, focusing on the author's explanation of the role of sea power rather than memorizing every detail.
How does it relate to Mahan's other works? The materials only indicate that this book is Mahan's work on the major naval operations of the American War of Independence; they do not state its order or revision relationship with his other works. What is certain is that it continues the author's approach of analyzing military history from the perspective of command of the sea and strategy, and is suitable as a thematic text for understanding his views on naval strategy.
What should be noted when reading the electronic edition? The book is released by Project Gutenberg as a free public-domain ebook; its typesetting and notes are relatively plain and it may lack maps and an index from modern editing. When reading, it is best to have map materials at hand, be patient with old-style spellings and personal names, and use external tools when necessary to verify information about ships and campaigns.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Mahan, A. T. (Alfred Thayer), 1840-1914 Author

Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840–1914) was an American naval officer and theorist of sea power. The collection holds 15 of his works, all centering on sea power and the fate of nations. His representative work, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783, uses historical narrative to argue for the role of maritime strength in the rise and fall of great powers; later works extend the inquiry to the French Revolution and Empire and examine sea power in the War of 1812. He also wrote a two-volume life of Nelson and works such as The Interest of America in Sea Power, Present and Future. Grounded in historical sources and clearly organized, his writing combines strategic analysis with historical narrative and has had a lasting influence on the study of sea power.