Militarism in a Global Age: Naval ambitions in Germany and the United States before World War I by Dirk Bönker
Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 2012, US$49.95 (hb)
x + 421 pages, with bibliography, index
ISBN 978-0-8014-5040-2
Naval histories of the immediate pre-First World War era often focus predominantly on the great Anglo-German naval race, a decade and a half long competition in maritime force accumulation that by virtue of its iconographic status, longevity, bitterness and ultimate culmination in conflict has cast an overwhelming shadow over the period. While there is certainly ample justification for the interest in this topic, an interest which has led to many innovative and exciting analyses, it is nevertheless clear that too exclusive a focus upon it must be to the detriment of other important areas within this broader field. It is, therefore, to be welcomed that Dirk Bönker's major new examination of the naval history of this period breaks away from this well trodden path to offer a new and original glimpse at alternative aspects of the naval development of this age. It does this in several ways. First, there is its angle of approach. Conceptually, this book is focused not on the material aspects of naval history, that is navies and the people and policies that drive them, but rather on navalism, that is the intellectual and ideological conceptualization of maritime force, the understanding of the ways in which it can be generated, the theory of the uses to which it can be put, the analysis of the apparent consequences of having it or not having it and the principles articulated for deploying it in the most appropriate manner. In short, it is the role and power of an idea that is being investigated here: the meaning and allure of sea power.
Second, there is the matter of the book's dramatis personae. Bönker eschews consideration of Britain's Royal Navy, the leading manifestation of maritime force in this period and, for this reason, the focus of choice for many historians, in order to concentrate instead on the thought processes that developed about sea power in Germany and America. These countries are selected for a reason. At the start of this era, they were both rising powers that in different ways simultaneously captured and epitomized the most modern aspects of the age. More significantly still, they were also nations that, towards the end of the nineteenth century, contemporaneously developed strong and influential navalist movements that led them to seek the status of first rate naval powers. In both cases, this was a goal that was rapidly achieved: in no time at all they would end up as leading exponents of sea power, possessing respectively the second and third largest and most prominent navies in the world.
These apparent similarities of both circumstance and outcome mean that navalism in Germany and the United States is a phenomenon ripe for comparative analysis. Bönker provides this. In doing so, he ranges widely, exploring the institutional structures of the two navies, the personalities that guided them, the political environments in which they operated, the ideas that shaped their growth and development, the threats they were supposed to meet and overcome, and opportunities they were meant to engender. He undertakes this exploration of American and German navalism both on their own individual terms – considering what is unique about the experience of these countries – but also with the goal of exploring the comparisons and contrasts that can be drawn between these two emerging naval powers. The result is a book that reveals a great deal about the individual naval development of both Germany and the United States – readers interested in either of these two navies will find the book rich and insightful – but likewise uncovers collective patterns. Indeed, those concerned with transnational and comparative history will find much to applaud here: the interweaving of the experiences and thought processes that occur in the two nations is done with great skill and sophistication.
Bönker's study, with its exploration of German and American navalism, inevitably invites comparison with those books, such as Philips Payson O'Brien's British and American Naval Power (1998), that also put countries side by side, or with monographs, such as Holger Herwig's Politics of Frustration (1976), that look at German-American naval rivalry. Obviously, Bönker owes a debt to those who have gone before him, but his book is conceptually distinct from its predecessors. German-American rivalry, for example, does feature in his text, but as part of the bigger picture of how navalists in the two countries conceived the world and their place in it. In short, it is a phenomenon subsumed in Bönker's much wider analysis. And it is the breadth and ambition of the analysis that makes this so impressive.
It is also the case that the book is extremely well researched. The very considerable secondary literature has been thoroughly explored and referenced where appropriate. At the same time, a rich vein of archival material from both Germany and the United States has been utilized and incorporated. The main points are, therefore, all solidly grounded.
Overall, this book makes a major contribution to the history of pre-war naval development. It can be highly recommended.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2013.767566
© Matthew S. Seligmann