US Navy Battleships 1886-98 - The pre-dreadnoughts and monitors that fought the Spanish-American War (Herder Brian Lane)(Paperback / softback)

The story of how the US Navy developed its first battleship fleet, their first combat test in the Spanish-American War, and the battleships' careers through World War I. This fully illustrated study examines the US's first six battleships, a story of political compromises, clean sheet designs, operational experience, and experimental improvements. These ships directly inspired the creation of an embryonic American military-industrial complex, enabled a permanent outward-looking shift in American foreign policy, and laid the foundations of the modern US Navy. After the American Civil War, the US Navy had been allowed to decay into complete insignificance, yet the commissioning of the modern Brazilian battleship Riachuelo and poor performance against the contemporary Spanish fleet, forced the US out of its isolationist posture towards battleships. The first
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