The Naval Aristocracy: The Golden Age of Annapolis and the Emergence of Modern American Navalism

When this book first appeared in 1972, Karsten, a former naval officer, was taken to task its portrayal of the Naval Academy and the officer corps. Although his conclusions riled more than a few senior officers, no one denied the significance of the study, and it was named Best Book of the Year by Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honorary society. The work focuses on the period after the Civil War when the U.S. emerged as a world power. This revelatory portrait of the officer corps in the late 19th and early 20th centuries has remained an important reference work for more than thirty-five years. AUTHOR: Peter Karsten is the author of the three-volume Encyclopedia on War and American Society.
89 b/w photos + 11 line drawings