This irreverent account of the modern battleship and its place in American naval history argues that the vaunted battleship was in fact never an effective weapon of war. For many decades the world's navies raced to build battleships at the expense of more effective forms of naval force. Dreadnoughts became the international currency of great power status, subject to the same anxious accountancy as nuclear weapons today. The author contends that the battleships actually have never played an important role in the outcome of any modern war, but nevertheless have continued to be built and rebuilt - and revered by many - right up to the present. The book aims to be a cautionary tale about the often unacknowledged influence of human faith, culture and tradition on the important, costly and supposedly rational process of nations arming themselves for war. The author also wrote Of Arms and Men: A History of War, Weapons, and Aggression.