Talking about Naval History is a collection twenty essays selected from the writings of John B. Hattendorf, Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History at the U.S. Naval War College, between 2001 and 2009. They represent a wide historical perspective that ranges across nearly four centuries of maritime history. A number of these pieces have been published previously but have appeared in other languages and in other countries, where they may not have come to the attention of an American naval reading audience. This collection is divided into parts that deal with four major themes: the broad field of maritime history; general naval history, with specific focus on the classical age of sail, from the mid-seventeenth century to the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815; the wide scope of American naval history from 1775 to the end of the twentieth century; and finally, the realm of naval theory and its relationship to naval historical studies. They are reprinted, with only minor alterations, as the originally appeared.