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Information at Sea

Shipboard Command and Control in the U.S. Navy, from Mobile Bay to Okinawa

Timothy S. Wolters

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This is the first book to explore information management at sea as practiced by the U.S. Navy from the Civil War to World War II.

The brain of a modern warship is its combat information center (CIC). Data about friendly and enemy forces pour into this nerve center, contributing to command decisions about firing, maneuvering, and coordinating. Timothy S. Wolters has written the first book to investigate the history of the CIC and the many other command and control systems adopted by the U.S. Navy from the Civil War to World War II. What institutional ethos spurred such innovation? Information at...

This is the first book to explore information management at sea as practiced by the U.S. Navy from the Civil War to World War II.

The brain of a modern warship is its combat information center (CIC). Data about friendly and enemy forces pour into this nerve center, contributing to command decisions about firing, maneuvering, and coordinating. Timothy S. Wolters has written the first book to investigate the history of the CIC and the many other command and control systems adopted by the U.S. Navy from the Civil War to World War II. What institutional ethos spurred such innovation? Information at Sea tells the fascinating stories of the naval and civilian personnel who developed an array of technologies for managing information at sea, from signal flares and radio to encryption machines and radar.

Wolters uses previously untapped archival sources to explore how one of America's most technologically oriented institutions addressed information management before the advent of the digital computer. He argues that the human-machine systems used to coordinate forces were as critical to naval successes in World War II as the ships and commanders more familiar to historians.

Reviews

Reviews

This is an excellent and important book. The author, a U.S. Navy Reserve officer, is well qualified to point to the distinction between the visible side of sea power, as reflected in ships and in naval weapons, and the much less visible but absolutely essential side involving the use of information.

Wolter's familiarity with naval minutiae and procedures leads to a lively and procedures leads to a lively, highly readable narrative that also maintains scholarly depth and thoroughness.

Information at Sea is a wonderful book, contributing to our understanding of the evolution of human-machine integration... a 'must read'!

This book will appeal to a broad cross-section of readers with an interest in naval matters and in particular those officers and sailors of the war-fighting community... Wolters has done a fine job in researching and writing this book and the astute reader will recognise that there are important lessons to be learned in it.

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About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
336
ISBN
9781421410265
Illustration Description
16 b&w illus.
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Flags, Flares, and Lights: A World before Wireless
2. Sparks and Arcs: The Navy Adopts Radio
3. War and Peace: Coordinating Naval Forces
4. A Most Complex Problem: Demanding

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Flags, Flares, and Lights: A World before Wireless
2. Sparks and Arcs: The Navy Adopts Radio
3. War and Peace: Coordinating Naval Forces
4. A Most Complex Problem: Demanding Information
5. Creating the Brain of a Warship: Radar and the CIC
Conclusion
Abbreviations
Notes
Essay on Sources
Archives and Manuscript Collections
Index

Author Bio
Timothy S. Wolters
Featured Contributor

Timothy S. Wolters, Ph.D.

Timothy S. Wolters, an engineer-qualified submariner and captain in the United States Navy Reserve, is an assistant professor of history at Iowa State University. He formerly held the Ramsey Chair of Naval Aviation History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.