Selling Sea Power - by Ryan D Wadle (Hardcover)

About the Book

Integrating military policy and strategy with the history of American culture and politics, Selling Sea Power offers a unique look at the complex links between the evolution of the art and industry of persuasion and the growth of the modern U.S. Navy.

Book Synopsis

The accepted narrative of the interwar U.S. Navy is one of transformation from a battle-centric force into a force that could fight on the "three planes" of war: in the skies, on the water, and under the waves. The political and cultural tumult that accompanied this transformation is another story. Ryan D. Wadle's Selling Sea Power explores this little-known but critically important aspect of naval history.

After World War I, the U.S. Navy faced numerous challenges: a call for naval arms limitation, the ascendancy of air power, and budgetary constraints exacerbated by the Great Depression. Selling Sea Power tells the story of how the navy met these challenges by engaging in protracted public relations campaigns at a time when the means and methods of reaching the American public were undergoing dramatic shifts. While printed media continued to thrive, the rapidly growing film and radio industries presented new mediums through which the navy could connect with politicians and the public. Deftly capturing the institutional nuances and the personalities in play, Wadle tracks the U.S. Navy's at first awkward but ultimately successful manipulation of mass media. At the same time, he analyzes what the public could actually see of the service in the variety of media available to them, including visual examples from progressively more sophisticated--and effective--public relations campaigns.

Integrating military policy and strategy with the history of American culture and politics, Selling Sea Power offers a unique look at the complex links between the evolution of the art and industry of persuasion and the growth of the modern U.S. Navy, as well as the connections between the workings of communications and public relations and the command of military and political power.

Review Quotes

"Wadle contributes to a rich historiography of the interwar navy and its transition from a battleship-centric force to one prepared to fight on the "three planes" of the ocean: the skies above, the surface, and the depths beneath. More specifically, this book joins a series of works discussing the history of American naval public relations, offering the first attempt to cover the entire interwar period and its implications...Wadle provides a complete and exhaustively researched picture of American naval public relations efforts from World War I to eve of Pearl Harbor."--H-Net Reviews


"Amidst rapidly evolving military technology and new mass media, the U.S. Navy mastered the practice of public relations during the Great Depression. Selling Sea Power shows how that expertise let the sea service create and popularize the fleet that won World War II."----Sarandis Papadopoulos, Naval Historian, Washington, D.C.