Heresies of Sea Power

In this 1906 work, Frederick Jane (1865–1916) questioned the widely accepted view that naval supremacy was a precondition of military success.

Published in 1906, this work was an astute critique of Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power on History (1890), which argued that naval supremacy was the precondition of military success. Frederick Jane (1865–1916) looks carefully at other factors that play a role in a nation's ability to prevail in conflicts.An influential work on naval strategy, The Influence of Sea Power on History (1890) by Alfred Mahan, an American naval officer, had been instrumental in reshaping military tactics in navies all around the world. Its central idea was that a nation's success was determined by its 'sea power' - its ability to command the oceans with a large fleet. Frederick Thomas Jane (1865–1916), the founding editor of All the World's Fighting Ships and All the World's Airships (which continue to this day), here recounts historical battles to argue that other factors were as crucial, if not more, in determining military outcomes. In this daring and astute critique of Mahan's work, Jane proposes that 'fitness to win' played an essential role in securing victory. First published in 1906, this work is a thought-provoking contribution to the debate that influenced the naval arms race in the period before the First World War.