Consider by scholars as the single most influential book in naval strategy, Alfred Thayer Mahan's "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History: 1660-1783," is a history of naval warfare and sea power during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that would have a profound influence on the world in the early part of the twentieth century. After the publication of this work the policies outlined in it would soon be adopted by the major military powers...

This short biography of the Civil War admiral — and hero of Mobile Bay — was published in 1892. Written by one of America's greatest naval historians, himself a Civil War veteran, this work is a must read for anyone interested in Farragut himself or in the development of Mahan's influential and pugnacious ideas about sea power.