This People's Navy: The Making of American Sea Power

As its title suggests, this essay by Kenneth Hagan, Captain USNR and History Professor USNA, unfolds our nation's emerging navalism - 1776-1991 - as a metaphor for the military-industrial power still driving US policy. One of its targets, Reagan-era SECNAV John Lehman, described it as "...the best one-volume history of the US Navy yet written." Subtly presented betwween the lines of this rousing story is a message for any American who pays taxes or votes.

When John Lehman reviewed this book for the New York Times [where it made their list of the year's top books] he called it "...easily the best one-volume history of the U.S. Navy yet written." He may also have been adroitly slipping the punch of its critique on the extravagantly unnecessary armada which he--as Secretary of the Navy--built for Ronald Reagan's defense industry. From the "Prophet" Mahan [publicity flack for Teddy Roosevelt and his "Great White Fleet"] to the Naval Academy-sanctified priesthood past and present, this book is a persistently low key, scholarly confrontation of the dogmas which have converted the United States from the world's greatest creditor to the world's greatest debtor nation. The message between the lines deserves careful reading by every tax payer.