Alfred Thayher Mahan

Alfred Thayer Mahan, born on September 27, 1840 in West Point, New York was son of dean of the faculty at the United States Military Academy and one of the most important naval historians and strategists of his time. Although both Philip A. Crowl and Paul M. Kennedy have their own opinions on the degree to which Mahan influenced society and naval doctrine as a strategist and historian, the validity and brilliance of some of his ideas …

…shaped modern naval philosophy and are undeniably genius ; Mahan could not get past the unavoidable fact that times indeed change. According to Kennedy: "history frequently does not repeat itself and that the shape of things to come may not always follow the pattern of the past." Had Mahan been more adept to this single fact, his role as a great Historian as well as an excellent strategist would have been much farther reaching and influential.