John Hattendorf

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Brewster Hattendorf (b. 22 December 1941) is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of more than forty books on British and American maritime history and naval warfare.

Since 1984, he has been the Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He has called maritime history "a subject that touches on both the greatest moments of the human spirit as well as on the worst, including war."[1]

1 Education and Early Life
2 Government career
3 Civilian career
4 Awards
5 Authorship
6 Works
7 See also
8 References

[edit] Education and Early Life

Hattendorf was born and raised in the village of Western Springs, Illinois. He is a ninth great-grandson (eleventh generation descendant) of Elder William Brewster (Pilgrim) of the Plymouth Colony. After graduating in the Class of 1960 from Lyons Township High School in LaGrange, Illinois, he earned his bachelor's degree in history in 1964 from Kenyon College. After graduation, he served his country during the Vietnam War as a naval officer on board destroyers, earning a commendation in combat operations. In 1970, he graduated from the Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime History at Mystic Seaport. He earned his master's degree in history from Brown University in 1971, and his doctorate from Pembroke College, Oxford in 1979.

[edit] Government career

While in the U.S. Navy, Hattendorf served ashore at the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C. in 1967-69 and at the Naval War College in 1972-73.

From 1988 to 2003, he directed the United States Naval War College's Advanced Research Department. In 2003, Hattendorf became the first chairman of the Naval War College's newly established Maritime History Department, where he oversees its research section and is the director of the Naval War College Museum. He has identified four primary audiences for the U.S. Navy's maritime history programs: sailors, Navy leaders, government policymakers, and the American people.[2]

He serves as chairman of the Secretary of the Navy's Advisory Subcommittee on Naval History and is a member of the Board of Advisors to the Canadian Forces College at Toronto.

[edit] Civilian career

For four years from 2003 through 2007, Hattendorf served as President of the North American Society for Oceanic History and, in that role, headed the U.S. delegation to the International Commission for Maritime History. He became the commission's Vice-President in July 2005.

As a civilian scholar, he has been visiting professor of history at the National University of Singapore and at the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office, and a visiting Fellow at Oxford University. He has been an adjunct professor at the Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime History since 1990 and served as its director from 1996 to 2001.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has served as a member of council and vice-president of the Hakluyt Society (UK), and was the founding president of the American Friends of the Hakluyt Society.[3] He has been a member of Council of the Navy Records Society. Since 1989, he has been co-chair of the publications committee of the Newport Historical Society and since 2005, historian of Trinity Episcopal Church and a member of the Board of Scholars for the American Revolution Center at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

[edit] Awards

Kenyon College awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1997.

In 1998, Lyons Township High school named him to its Hall of Fame

The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (UK) awarded him its Caird Medal in 2000 for his contributions to the field of maritime history.

In 2003, the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH) presented him its K. Jack Bauer Award for service to maritime history.

He is an honorary corresponding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Royal Swedish Society of Naval Sciences, the Académie du Var(France), and the Society for Nautical Research.

[edit] Authorship

His histories range from studies on the War of the Spanish Succession to recent naval history. He has written readers' guides to the Aubrey-Maturin series of naval novels by Patrick O'Brian, as well as works on Alfred Thayer Mahan and Sir Julian Corbett.

He was senior editor of the series Classics of Sea Power for the U.S. Naval Institute Press and edited the series Maritime Books, 1475-1800, a collection of facsimiles of rare books from the John Carter Brown Library.

Hattendorf was a co-author of The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy and The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Warfare, the latter with Richard Holmes and other authors.

He contributed 22 articles to The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(2005) and was editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History (2007), which was awarded the 2008 Dartmouth Medal.

[edit] Works

A Dusty Path : A pictorial History of Kenyon College (1964)

The writings of Stephen B. Luce edited with a commentary by John D. Hayes and John B. Hattendorf (1975)

Register of the papers of William L. Mullin compiled by John B. Hattendorf (1981) [4]

On His Majesty's service : observations of the British Home Fleet from the diary, reports, and letters of Joseph H. Wellings, Assistant U.S. Naval Attaché, London, 1940-41 edited by John B. Hattendorf (1983)

The two beginnings : a history of St. George's Church, Tanglin (1984)

Sailors and scholars : the centennial history of the U.S. Naval War College by John B. Hattendorf, B. Mitchell Simpson, III, and John R. Wadleigh (1984)

Register of the papers of Alfred T. Mahan (1986) [5]

England in the War of the Spanish Succession: a study of the English view and conduct of grand strategy, 1702-1712 (1987)

A bibliography of the works of Alfred Thayer Mahan compiled by John B. Hattendorf and Lynn C. Hattendorf (1987)

Register of the papers of William McCarty Little compiled by John B. Hattendorf (1989) [6]

Maritime strategy and the balance of power : Britain and America in the twentieth century edited by John B. Hattendorf and Robert S. Jordan; foreword by Robert J. O'Neill (1989)

Limitations of military power : essays presented to Professor Norman Gibbs on his eightieth birthday edited by John B. Hattendorf and Malcolm H. Murfett ; foreword by Andrew Goodpaster, Piers Mackesy and Sir Michael Pike (1990)

Mahan on naval strategy : selections from the writings of Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan with an introduction by John B. Hattendorf, editor. (1991)

The influence of history on Mahan : the proceedings of a conference marking the centenary of Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of sea power upon history, 1660-1783 edited by John B. Hattendorf (1991)

British Naval documents, 1204-1960 edited by John B. Hattendorf, R. J. B. Knight ... [et al.] (1993)

Mahan is not enough : the proceedings of a conference on the works of Sir Julian Corbett and Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond edited by James Goldrick and John B. Hattendorf (1993)

Ubi sumus? : the state of naval and maritime history edited by John B. Hattendorf (1994)

Saint Barthélemy and the Swedish West India Company: a selection of printed documents, 1784-1814, facsimile reproductions with an introduction by John B. Hattendorf. (1994)

Twelfth International Seapower Symposium: report of proceedings of the conference, 7-10 November 1993 edited by John B. Hattendorf (1994)

A sea of words : a lexicon and companion for Patrick O'Brian's seafaring tales by Dean King, with John B. Hattendorf and J. Worth Estes. (1995)

Doing naval history : essays toward improvement edited by John B. Hattendorf (1995)

Thirteenth International Seapower Symposium : report of proceedings of the conference, 5-8 November 1995 edited by John B. Hattendorf. (1995)

Maritime history edited by John B. Hattendorf (1996-97)

John Robinson's Account of Sweden, 1688 : the original 1688 manuscript, edited and collated with the 1693 manuscript and the published editions from 1694 with an introduction by John B. Hattendorf. (1998)

Fourteenth International Seapower Symposium : report of the proceedings of the conference, 2-5 November 1997 edited by John B. Hattendorf. (1998)

America and the Sea: A Maritime History by Benjamin Woods Labaree, William M. Fowler, Jr., John B. Hattendorf, Jeffrey Safford, Edward W. Sloan, and Andrew German. (1998)

Harbors and high seas : an atlas and geographical guide to the complete Aubrey-Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian by Dean King with John B. Hattendorf ; maps by William Clipson, Jeffrey Ward, and Adam Merton Cooper. (1996; 1999)

Naval policy and strategy in the Mediterranean : past, present and future edited by John B. Hattendorf (2000)

Naval history and maritime strategy : collected essays (2000)

Semper eadem : a history of Trinity Church in Newport, 1698-2000 (2001)

Every man will do his duty : an anthology of first-hand accounts from the age of Nelson, 1793-1815 Dean King with John B. Hattendorf [editors] ; maps by Adam Merton Cooper (1997; 2002)

War at sea in the Middle Ages and Renaissance edited by John B. Hattendorf and Richard W. Unger (2003)

"The boundless deep..." : the European conquest of the Oceans, 1450 to 1840 : catalogue of an exhibition of rare books, maps, charts, prints and manuscripts relating to maritime history from the John Carter Brown Library (2003)