In this engaging narrative, Kennedy tells a story of naval warfare, and shows how the strategic landscape for naval affairs was completely altered between 1936 and 1946, leading to the rise of an American economic and military power larger than anything the world had ever seen.

Paul Kennedy is J. Richardson Dilworth Professor of History and director of International Security Studies at Yale University. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. Ian Marshall was a fellow and past president of the American Society of Marine Artists as well as a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists. He wrote and illustrated numerous works, including Armored Ships and Ironclads and Paddlers.