Arthur Jacob Marder: A Glorifier of the British Sea Power

Abstract

In this article the author analyses the academic career of Arthur Jacob Marder, a prominent student of British naval policy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Even though he graduated from Harvard, Marder faced serious difficulties in obtaining a position at American universities because of the ethnic and religious prejudices prevalent in the 1930s. Marder chose British naval policy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as his field of research. A key issue in this vast area of study were the reforms put in place by Admiral John Fisher to prepare the British Navy for the Great War. His first monograph, “The Anatomy of British Sea Power”, was published in 1940. After encountering restrictions on access to British Admiralty documents in the 1940s and 1950s, Marder turned to private archives to locate sources for his study. He managed to publish both Sir Herbert Richmond's diaries and the three-volume correspondence of Sir John Fisher. The five-volume treatise “From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow” was the crowning achievement of Marder's research. Marder is considered the founder of the classic concept of the so-called naval revolution of Sir John Fisher. Marder had the unique opportunity to study British naval documents, most of which no longer exist today and are forever lost to future generations of historians. This is the primary reason why Marder's work retains its significance to this day.