Sea Power in Its Relations to the War of 1812, Volume 1 (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

This authoritative 1905 history, based on Mahan’s lectures as president of the Naval War College, develop his still-influential ideas about the role navies play among modern nations. Volume One begins with the antecedents of the war, such as the conditions in the colonies—and ends in the thick of the war, describing ocean warfare in the fall of 1812.