There have been a number of studies published on the activities of the British and German navies during World War I, but little on naval action in other arenas. This book offers for the first time a balanced history of the naval war as a whole covering all participants in all major theaters. The author's earlier book, The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 1914-1918, centered on submarine activities and Allied efforts to counter this new menace.

With this welcome sequel he again takes the reader beyond just those World War I operations staged on the North Sea to include the Italians and Austrians in the Adriatic; the Russians, Germans, and Turks in the Baltic and Black Seas; and the French and British in the Mediterranean.

Important riverine engagements - notably those on the Danube - also are included, along with major colonial campaigns such as Mesopotamia and the Dardanelles. The role of neutral sea powers, such as the Swedes in the Baltic and the Dutch in the East Indies, is examined from the perspective of how their neutrality affected naval activity. Also discussed is the part played by the U.S. Navy and the often overlooked, but far from negligible, role of the Japanese navy.

The latter is viewed in the context of the opening months of the war and in the Mediterranean during the height of the submarine crisis of 1917.

The book is also notable for its inclusion of now-forgotten strategies for naval operations that never materialized. Halpern's discussion of dashed endeavors includes American plans to land Marines on the Sabbioncello Peninsula in the Adriatic, Churchill's stratagem for landings on islands off the German coast, and other British gambits on the Danube River and Baltic Sea.

With a clear and authoritative voice, the author lends an admirable cohesiveness to this encompassing view of World War I naval operations, both realized and unrealized.