Joel Ira Holwitt earned his PhD in history from Ohio State University in 2005. His work has also been published in the US Naval Institute Proceedings magazine, Naval History magazine, the Journal of Military History, Military History of the West, the Submarine Review, and US Naval Academy textbooks. A graduate of the US Naval Academy, he is an active duty submarine officer in the US Navy.

“ . . . until now how the Navy managed to instantaneously move from the overt legal restrictions of the naval arms treaties that bound submarines to the cruiser rules of the eighteenth century to a declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare against Japan immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor has never been explained. Lieutenant Holwitt has dissected this process and has created a compelling story of who did what, when, and to whom.” - The Submarine Review“Although the policy of unrestricted air and submarine warfare proved critical to the Pacific war’s course, this splendid work is the first comprehensive account of its origins—illustrating that historians have by no means exhausted questions about this conflict.” - World War II Magazine“US Navy submarine officer Joel Ira Holwitt has performed an impressive feat with this book. . . . Holwitt is to be commended for not shying away from moral judgments . . . This is a superb book that fully explains how the United States came to adopt a strategy regarded by many as illegal and tantamount to ‘terror’.” - Military Review