At the dawn of the "Steel Navy" era, the rapidly expanding US Navy's fleet of capital ships consisted not only of battleships but also armored cruisers. The forerunner of the battlecruiser, these warships sacrificed the battleship's firepower and protection for superior speed and range, but were controversial. An armored cruiser was as large and expensive as a battleship, but unable to fight one. In this book, naval expert Brian Lane Herder explains that despite their great expense, armored cruisers' tactical roles beyond commerce raiding and protection were limited. However, they had interesting careers: armored cruisers fought in the Spanish-American War, and after 1906, some replaced US battleships in the Pacific, functioning as oversized gunboats. Two conducted naval aviation experiments, and after World War I, surviving US armored cruisers represented the US Navy on the Asiatic station. Illustrated throughout with archive photographs and striking original artwork, this is a concisely detailed history of some of the US Navy's most controversial and intriguing warships. Book jacket.