This sweeping recasting of American naval history is a bold departure from the Conventional “sea power� approach. This book shows how the Navy in World War II helped to upset the traditional balance in Europe and Asia. Days after Pearl Harbor, Admiral Ernest J. King took command of a navy overwhelmed by the demands of a two-ocean war. King devised grand strategies to defeat the Axis and promoted a cadre of fighting admirals – Halsey, Spruance, Hewitt, Kincaid, and Turner – who waged naval and amphibious warfare on a scale unprecedented in complexity and violence. New sources provide an entirely fresh look at the Battle of the Atlantic, the invasion of Europe, and the great naval campaigns in the Pacific.