John B. Hattendorf


John Brewster Hattendorf, D.Phil., D.Litt., L.H.D., FRHistS, FSNR, is an American naval historian. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of more than fifty books, mainly on British and American maritime history and naval warfare. In 2005, the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings described him as "one of the most widely known and well-respected naval historians in the world." In reference to his work on the history of naval strategy, an academic in Britain termed him the "doyen of US naval educators." A Dutch scholar went further to say that Hattendorf "may rightly be called one of the most influential maritime historians in the world."
From 1984 to 2016, he was 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."
In 2011, the Naval War College announced the establishment of the Hattendorf Prize for Distinguished Original Research in Maritime History, named for him. The 2014 Oxford Naval Conference - "Strategy and the Sea" - celebrated his distinguished career on April 10–12, 2014. The proceedings of the conference were published as a festschrift. In March 2016, Hattendorf received the higher doctorate of Doctor of Letters from the University of Oxford. Among the few Americans to have received such designation, Hattendorf remained actively engaged on the Naval War College campus after his formal retirement in 2016.
Remaining in scholarly service as the Ernest J. King Professor Emeritus of Maritime History at the Naval War College, Hattendorf continued guiding discussions about the role of future history in understanding contemporary strategic problems in the global maritime arena. Recognizing his contributions in the fields of maritime history and naval strategy, the President of the Naval War College, Rear Admiral Jeffrey Harley, established the "John B. Hattendorf Center for Maritime Historical Research" in the summer of 2017. The Hattendorf Historical Center performs the mission of supporting future history requirements in Professional Military Education through original documentary research, scholarly publications, public education programming, and direct support to the seagoing forces of the U.S. Navy. As history is largely unclassified, the Hattendorf Historical Center also provides historical foundations for contemporary discussion in the interest of facilitating international partnerships in the global maritime commons.

Family, education, and early life

Hattendorf was born and raised in the village of Western Springs, Illinois. He is a ninth great-grandson of Elder William Brewster of the Plymouth Colony. His interest in the ships and the sea stemmed from summers spent at his family cottage at Portage Point, Michigan, where he was a sailing instructor on Portage Lake from 1958 to 1964. 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, where he was inspired by Charles Ritcheson and Richard G. Salomon. In 1970, he graduated from the Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime History at Mystic Seaport, where he studied under Robert G. Albion and Benjamin W. Labaree. He earned his master's degree in history from Brown University in 1971, completing his thesis under the tutelage of A. Hunter Dupree on the history of strategic thinking and war gaming at the Naval War College. In 1979, he completed his doctorate at Pembroke College, Oxford with a thesis on English Grand Strategy in the War of the Spanish Succession, 1702–12, supervised by N. H. Gibbs and complemented by studies under Ragnhild Hatton, Sir Michael Howard and Piers Mackesy.

Naval career

After graduation from Kenyon College, he served his country in uniform for eight years during the Vietnam War period, as a naval officer. He served on board USS O'Brien, earning a commendation from the Commander, United States Seventh Fleet, for outstanding performance of duty during combat operations in April 1967. Later, he served at sea in USS Purdy and USS Fiske. While in the U.S. Navy, Hattendorf also served ashore at the Naval History Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, in Washington, D.C. in 1967–69, where he was first trained in naval history under Rear Admiral Ernest M. Eller and Dr. William J. Morgan, and at the Naval War College in 1972–73, where he served as speech writer and research assistant to Vice Admiral Stansfield Turner and also taught in the college's strategy and policy department.

Civilian academic career

Hattendorf has spent most of his civilian academic career at the United States Naval War College, returning there as a civilian faculty member in 1977. He taught Strategy and Policy for a number of years. 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 oversaw its research section and also the director of the Naval War College Museum. He retired in September 2016 and was promoted to Ernest J. King Professor Emeritus of Maritime History. He identified four primary audiences for the U.S. Navy's maritime history programs: sailors, Navy leaders, government policymakers, and the American people.
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, a senior associate member of St Antony's College, Oxford, and a visiting Fellow at Pembroke College, Oxford. 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.

Public and Community Service

Hattendorf served on the Secretary of the Navy's Advisory Subcommittee on Naval History from 2004 through 2008, serving as chairman, 2006–2008. He was a member of the Board of Advisors to the Canadian Forces College at Toronto.
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 served as one of the commission's vice-presidents, 2005–2009.
He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has served as a member of council and vice-president of the Hakluyt Society, and was the founding president of the American Friends of the Hakluyt Society. 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 Church, Newport, Rhode Island, and a member of the Board of Scholars for the Museum of the American Revolution.
He serves as Historian-General of the Naval Order of the United States, Historian of the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Historian of the Rhode Island Society of Colonial Wars, and the Historian of the Rhode Island Sons of the Revolution.. He sits on the executive committee of the Maritime Policy & Strategy Research Center.

Awards

awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1997.
In 1998, Lyons Township High school named him to its Alumni Hall of Fame.
The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich 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 presented him its K. Jack Bauer Award for service to maritime history.
In 2009, he received the Department of the Navy Superior Civilian Service Award for his work as chairman, Secretary of the Navy's Advisory Subcommittee on Naval History, 2006–2008. In addition, the USS Constitution Museum presented him with its Samuel Eliot Morison Award. and the Navy League of the United States presented him with its Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement.
In 2012, the Naval Order of the United States awarded him its Admiral of the Navy George Dewey Award.
In 2014, The Naval Historical Foundation awarded him the Commodore Dudley W. Knox Naval History Lifetime Achievement Award.
In March 2016, the University of Oxford awarded Hattendorf a higher doctorate, the Doctor of Letters degree.
In September 2016, The Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral John Richardson presented him with the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award.
In September 2017, Hattendorf was the first recipient of the Britain's Society for Nautical Research Anderson Award for Lifetime Achievement.
In May 2019, The Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame inducted Hattendorf.
He is an honorary corresponding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Royal Swedish Society of Naval Sciences, the Academie Du Var, the Society for Nautical Research, and since 2008 an Associate Member the Class of Maritime History of the Portuguese Navy's Academia de Marinha.

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 and was editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History, which was awarded the 2008 Dartmouth Medal.

Books and monographs

A Dusty Path: A pictorial History of Kenyon College

Selected essays and articles