Some Neglected Aspects of War; Together with the Power that Makes for Peace by Henry S. Pritchett; and The Capture of Private Property at Sea, by Julian S. Corbett

Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1907. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. Hardcover. xxii, [2], 193, [3] pages. Footnotes. Ex-library with the usual markings. Cover is worn and soiled. Front and rear boards have some weakness. This work is the republication of essays originally published in professional journals and significant periodicals, such as The Atlantic Monthly. The Practical Aspect of War; War from the Christian Standpoint; The Capture of Private Property at Sea; and The Hague Conference of 1907. The essays republished are: The Power That Makes for Peace; The Moral Aspect of War; The Practical Aspect of War; War from the Christian Standpoint; The Capture of Private Property at Sea; and The Hague Conference of 1907, and the question of Immunity for Belligerent Merchant Shipping. Henry Smith Pritchett (April 16, 1857 – August 28, 1939) was an American astronomer and educator. Pritchett was born on April 16, 1857 in Fayette, Missouri and attended Pritchett College in Glasgow, Missouri, receiving an A.B. in 1875. He then took instruction from Asaph Hall for two years at the US Naval Observatory after which he was made an assistant astronomer. In 1880, he returned to Glasgow to take a position at the Morrison Observatory. In the early 1890s he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Munich in 1894. He was Superintendent of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1897 to 1900. Pritchett served as the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1900 to 1906. He was president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT) from 1906 until he retired in 1930. He was long involved with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Alfred Thayer Mahan (September 27, 1840 – December 1, 1914) was a United States naval officer and historian, whom John Keegan called "the most important American strategist of the nineteenth century." His book The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783 (1890) won immediate recognition, especially in Europe, and with its successor, The Influence of Sea Power Upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793–1812 (1892), made him world-famous and perhaps the most influential American author of the nineteenth century. In 1885, he was appointed as a lecturer in naval history and tactics at the Naval War College. Before entering on his duties, College President Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce pointed Mahan in the direction of writing his future studies on the influence of sea power. In 1886, Mahan became President of the Naval War College by default (June 22, 1886 – January 12, 1889, July 22, 1892 – May 10, 1893). There, in 1888, he met and befriended future president Theodore Roosevelt, then a visiting lecturer. Mahan's lectures, based on secondary sources and the military theories of Jomini, became his sea-power studies: The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783 (1890); The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793–1812 (2 vols., 1892); Sea Power in Relation to the War of 1812 (2 vols., 1905), and The Life of Nelson: The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain (2 vols., 1897). Mahan struck up a friendship with pioneering British naval historian Sir John Knox Laughton, the pair maintaining the relationship through correspondence and visits when Mahan was in London. Laughton saw Mahan as a theorist while Mahan called Laughton "the historian". Mahan also worked closely with William McCarty Little, another critical figure in the early history of the Naval War College and a principal developer of wargaming in the United States Navy. Mahan credited McCarty Little for assisting him with preparing maps and charts for his lectures and first book. Mahan believed that national greatness was inextricably associated with the sea, with its commercial use in peace and its control in war. Mahan contended that with a command of the sea, even if local and temporary, naval operations in support of land forces could be of decisive importance. In 1902 Mahan was elected president of the American Historical Association, and his address, "Subordination in Historical Treatment", is his most explicit explanation of his philosophy of history. Sir Julian Stafford Corbett (12 November 1854 – 21 September 1922) was a prominent British naval historian and geostrategist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose works helped shape the Royal Navy's reforms of that era. One of his most famous works is Some Principles of Maritime Strategy, which remains a classic among students of naval warfare. Corbett was a good friend and ally of naval reformer Admiral John "Jacky" Fisher, the First Sea Lord. He was chosen to write the official history of British Naval operations during World War I. In 1896 Corbett accepted John Knox Laughton's request to edit a volume of documents on the Spanish war, 1585–87 which served as the start of his career as a naval historian. He soon became known as one of the Royal Navy's leading intellectuals, and from 1901 to 1922 was writing regularly on naval history and strategy. In 1902 he began lecturing at the Royal Naval College, founded in 1900. In 1903 he gave the Ford Lectures in English History at Oxford University. In 1905 he became the Admiralty's chief unofficial strategic adviser and served as secretary of the Cabinet Historical Office. Appointed a knight in 1917, he was awarded the Chesney Gold Medal in 1914. Condition: Fair.

Keywords: Naval Power, Sea Power, War, Capture at Sea, Private Property, Hague Conference of 1907, Belligerent Merchant Shipping, Naval Operations, Morality, Moral Aspects, Christianity

[Book #83632]

Price: $75.00

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