A. T. Mahan

Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840–1914) was an American naval officer and historian, the son of a West Point professor, who spent nearly forty years in the United States Navy without much liking the sea. Appointed to lecture at the new Naval War College in 1885, he turned his lectures into The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783, which argued that command of the sea decided the fate of nations and was read closely in London, Berlin and Tokyo. Sea Power in Its Relations to the War of 1812 and a life of Nelson followed. He retired as a rear admiral and is the most influential naval theorist America has produced.