In 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt's "Great White Fleet" of sixteen battleships arrived back in the United States from its epic voyage. The homecoming marked the completion of a technological triumph: the first circumnavigation of the globe by a fleet of steam-driven warships. Many naval experts had said it could not be done. The achievement underscored the world ranking that the U.S. Navy had attained. It was now second only to Britain's Royal Navy in size and firepower.

But scarcely a generation earlier, in 1880, the U.S. Navy had reached the nadir of a precipitous decline that had begun just after the Civil War.

This remarkably rapid metamorphosis, which heralded the emergence of the United States as a decisive player in world affairs, can be largely credited to the ideas, determination, and energy of one man - Theodore Roosevelt. In 1880, while still a student at Harvard, he began writing The Naval War of 1812, which established his credentials as an expert on naval affairs. The secretary of the navy ordered a copy placed aboard every American naval vessel.

From then until he left public office, Roosevelt continually prodded his fellow politicians into supporting the Navy, badgered often-reluctant senior officers into accepting the technological changes being thrust upon them, and instilled in his countrymen an abiding understanding that their country's security and responsibilities demanded a strong naval force.

Kenneth Wimmel's Theodore Roosevelt and the Great White Fleet examines this crucial period in naval history with particular attention to Roosevelt's profound influence.