Crisis at Sea

Crisis at Sea is the first comprehensive history of the United States Navy in European waters during World War I. Drawing on vast American, British, German, French, and Italian sources, the author presents the U.S. Naval experience as America moved into the modern age of naval warfare. Not limited to an operations account of naval battles and strategies, this volume - the second in a series - examines diplomatic policies, cabinet decisions, logistics, the home front, support systems, and shipbuilding to illustrate the complexity and enormity of America's naval participation in World War I. This is a thorough treatment of not only the events but also the personalities of the war, with particular attention to the difficulties they faced. The book reveals penetrating insights into the United States' relations in the world, the nation's unpreparedness for such a war, the limits imposed on the Navy by the cabinet, and the unexpected conclusion to the war. Much of the author's exhaustive research is new, such as the use of French official documents and British recollections of the American ships and sailors. This book will be the standard reference volume for libraries and serious scholars with a special interest in World War I and in the history of warfare.

William N. Still Jr. is professor emeritus of history and former director of the Program in Maritime History and Underwater Archaeology at East Carolina University. The Secretary of the Navy's Scholar in Naval History at the Naval Historical Center from 1989-1990, he is the author of American Sea Power in the Old World: The United States Navy in European and Near Eastern Waters, 1865-1917; Iron Afloat: The Story of the Confederate Armorclads; the editor of The Confederate Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organization, 1861-65; and a coauthor of Why the South Lost the Civil War.