Thomas Parrish

The Submarine

A History

Viking, June 2004

As entertaining as a high-tech thriller, The Submarine is essential reading for understanding the last hundred years of war. It tells the story of the dreamers who first imagined submersible ships and the ingenious and practical engineers who created them; of the visionary national leaders and naval strategists who supported the development of underwater warships and the famous steel- nerved men on all sides who wielded this weapon. The Submarine details the role of subs in both world wars, and how, in the nuclear age, they became the most powerful weapons of war ever created—the force that paradoxically kept the peace during the Cold War without firing a single shot.