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ETD Abstract Container
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Admiral William S. Benson and the American Tradition of Sea Power
Author Info
Wurl, William M.
Permalink:
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1258055271
Abstract Details
Year and Degree
2009, MA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History.
Abstract
This thesis will examine the American sea power tradition, the ideas expressed by U.S. Navy officers regarding the contribution the maritime services made to national power and prosperity. In particular, this study will focus on the relationship between two key components identified by Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, historian and naval theorist, in his 1890 classic, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783: the nation’s naval service and its merchant marine. In doing so, this thesis will explore the power-political and mercantile-commercial dimensions of the American sea power tradition formulated in the four decades before World War I and the influence of those dimensions on Admiral William S. Benson, wartime chief of naval operations (CNO) and postwar member of the United States Shipping Board (USSB). Naval historiography centers the American sea power tradition on Mahan. However, his emphasis on the necessity of a large battle fleet and of a large merchant marine was not original, and he deemphasized the merchant marine’s importance over time. Instead, he contributed to a “tradition of thought” regarding these services a decade before his 1890 book. Admiral Benson is depicted in naval historiography as a nationalist and anti-British because of his position at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and his protectionist policies while chairman of the USSB. What is missing in the historiography of Benson is how this multi-generational intellectual tradition shaped his ideas during his varied careers. Benson’s support of a strong navy and a merchant marine not only came from Mahan, but from other sources in his generation. The context that created these ideas changed, but those ideas were modified to be used in the given situations by Benson and his contemporaries during and after World War I. This study divides the period of the 1880s to the 1920s into three distinct but overlapping eras. The late 1870s to late 1890s composed the first era, consisting of a rapid commercial expansion and “new empire” colonialism, and an obsolete navy with a continental view of defense. The late 1890s to 1919 presented a change in American naval policy as the changing great power rivalry of Europe demanded a large navy and a merchant marine for defense. The 1920s was an era of peace and armament limitation led by the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armaments. Benson became worried that American naval preparedness would be jeopardized by the armament limitation treaty. The sea power tradition influenced Benson’s views as he sought to preserve the war-built merchant marine for national defense.
Committee
Dr. Clarence Wunderlin, Jr. (Advisor)
Pages
183 p.
Subject Headings
American History
;
Armed Forces
;
History
;
Military History
Keywords
American sea power
;
U.S. Navy
;
American merchant marine
;
William S. Benson
;
Alfred Thayer Mahan
;
Bradley A. Fiske
Recommended Citations
Refworks
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Citations
Wurl, W. M. (2009).
Admiral William S. Benson and the American Tradition of Sea Power
[Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1258055271
APA Style (7th edition)
Wurl, William.
Admiral William S. Benson and the American Tradition of Sea Power.
2009. Kent State University, Master's thesis.
OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center
, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1258055271.
MLA Style (8th edition)
Wurl, William. "Admiral William S. Benson and the American Tradition of Sea Power." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1258055271
Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)
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Document number:
kent1258055271
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Copyright Info
© 2009, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.