Hattendorf was born and raised in the village of Western Springs, Illinois. He is a ninth great-grandson (eleventh generation descendant) of Elder William Brewster of the Plymouth Colony. After graduating in the Class of 1960 from Lyons Township High School in LaGrange, Illinois, he earned his bachelor's degree in history in 1964 from Kenyon College. In 1970, he graduated from the Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime History at Mystic Seaport, where he studied under Robert G. Albion and Benjamin W. Labaree. He earned his master's degree in history from Brown University in 1971, and his doctorate from Pembroke College, Oxford in 1979.

After graduation from Kenyon College, he served his country in uniform for eight years during the Vietnam War period, as a naval officer. He served on board USS O'Brien , earning a commendation from the Commander, United States Seventh Fleet, for outstanding performance of duty during combat operations in April 1967. Later, he served at sea in USS Purdy and USS Fiske . While in the U.S. Navy, Hattendorf also served ashore at the Naval History Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (Op-09B9), in Washington, D.C. in 1967-69, where he was first trained in naval history under Rear Admiral Ernest M. Eller and Dr. William J. Morgan, and at the Naval War College in 1972-73.

Hattendorf has spent most of his civilian academic career at the United States Naval War College, returning there as a civilian faculty member in 1977. He taught Strategy and Policy for a number of years. From 1988 to 2003, he directed the United States Naval War College's Advanced Research Department. In 2003, Hattendorf became the first chairman of the Naval War College's newly established Maritime History Department, where he oversees its research section and is the director of the Naval War College Museum. He has identified four primary audiences for the U.S. Navy's maritime history programs: sailors, Navy leaders, government policymakers, and the American people.[1]

As a civilian scholar, he has been visiting professor of history at the National University of Singapore and at the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office, and a visiting Fellow at Oxford University. He has been an adjunct professor at the Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime History since 1990 and served as its director from 1996 to 2001.

He served on the Secretary of the Navy's Advisory Subcommittee on Naval History from 2004 thorugh 2008, serving as chairman, 2006-2008. He is a member of the Board of Advisors to the Canadian Forces College at Toronto.

For four years from 2003 through 2007, Hattendorf served as President of the North American Society for Oceanic History and, in that role, headed the U.S. delegation to the International Commission for Maritime History. He became the commission's Vice-President in July 2005.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has served as a member of council and vice-president of the Hakluyt Society (UK), and was the founding president of the American Friends of the Hakluyt Society.[2]. He has been a member of Council of the Navy Records Society. Since 1989, he has been co-chair of the publications committee of the Newport Historical Society and since 2005, historian of Trinity Episcopal Church and a member of the Board of Scholars for the American Revolution Center at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

Kenyon College awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1997.

In 1998, Lyons Township High school named him to its Hall of Fame

The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (UK) awarded him its Caird Medal in 2000 for his contributions to the field of maritime history.

In 2003, the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH) presented him its K. Jack Bauer Award for service to maritime history.

In 2009, he received the Department of the Navy Superior Civilian Service Award for his work as chairman, Secretary of the Navy's Advisory Subcommittee on Naval History, 2006-2008. In addition, the USS Constitution Museum presented him with its Samuel Eliot Morison Award. and the Navy League of the United States presented him with its Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement.

He is an honorary corresponding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Royal Swedish Society of Naval Sciences, the Académie du Var(France), the Society for Nautical Research, and the Portuguese Navy's Academia de Marinha.

His histories range from studies on the War of the Spanish Succession to recent naval history. He has written readers' guides to the Aubrey-Maturin series of naval novels by Patrick O'Brian, as well as works on Alfred Thayer Mahan and Sir Julian Corbett.

He was senior editor of the series Classics of Sea Power for the U.S. Naval Institute Press and edited the series Maritime Books, 1475-1800, a collection of facsimiles of rare books from the John Carter Brown Library.

Hattendorf was a co-author of The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy and The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Warfare, the latter with Richard Holmes and other authors. He contributed 22 articles to The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(2005) and was editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History (2007), which was awarded the 2008 Dartmouth Medal.

• BOOKS AND MONOGRAPHS

• The two beginnings: a history of St. George's Church, Tanglin [Singapore] (1984)

• Sailors and scholars: the centennial history of the U.S. Naval War College (1984)

• England in the War of the Spanish Succession: a study of the English view and conduct of grand strategy, 1702-1712 (1987)

• Semper eadem: a history of Trinity Church in Newport, 1698-2000 (2001)
• The evolution of the U.S. Navy's maritime strategy, 1977-1986 (2004)

• Newport, the French Navy, and American Independence (2004; 2005)

• COLLECTED ARTICLES AND ESSAYS

• Naval history and maritime strategy: collected essays (2000)

• CO-AUTHORED BOOKS

• America and the Sea: A Maritime History by Benjamin Woods Labaree, William M. Fowler, Jr., John B. Hattendorf, Jeffrey Safford, Edward W. Sloan, and Andrew German (1998)

• Harbors and high seas: an atlas and geographical guide to the complete Aubrey-Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian by Dean King with John B. Hattendorf ; maps by William Clipson, Jeffrey Ward, and Adam Merton Cooper (1996; 1999)

• EDITED HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS

• The writings of Stephen B. Luce edited with a commentary by John D. Hayes and John B. Hattendorf (1975)

• On His Majesty's service: observations of the British Home Fleet from the diary, reports, and letters of Joseph H. Wellings, Assistant U.S. Naval Attaché, London, 1940-41 edited by John B. Hattendorf (1983)

• Mahan on naval strategy: selections from the writings of Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan with an introduction by John B. Hattendorf, editor (1991)

• British Naval documents, 1204-1960 edited by John B. Hattendorf, R. J. B. Knight, A. W. H. Pearsall, N. A. M. Rodger, Geoffrey Till (1993)

• Saint Barthélemy and the Swedish West India Company: a selection of printed documents, 1784—1814, facsimile reproductions with an introduction by John B. Hattendorf (1994)

• John Robinson's Account of Sweden, 1688 : the original 1688 manuscript, edited and collated with the 1693 manuscript and the published editions from 1694 with an introduction by John B. Hattendorf (1998)

• Every man will do his duty: an anthology of first-hand accounts from the age of Nelson, 1793-1815 Dean King with John B. Hattendorf [editors]; maps by Adam Merton Cooper (1997; 2002)
• U.S. Naval Strategy in the 1990s: Selected Documents (2006)
• U.S. Naval Strategy in the 1970s: Selected Documents (2007)
• U.S. Naval Strategy in the 1980s: Selected Documents (2008)

• INTRODUCTIONS TO HISTORICAL BOOKS

• Charles Nordhoff, Man-of-war life: a boy's experience in the United States Navy, during a voyage around the world in a ship-of-the-line [1855] (1985)

• J. C. Wylie, Military strategy: a general theory of power control (1967). (1989)

• Julian Corbett, Maritime operations in the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905 introduction by D. M. Schurman and John B. Hattendorf (1994)

• Tobias Gentleman, England's way to win wealth, and to employ ships and marriners (1614). Delmar, N.Y. : Published for the John Carter Brown Library by Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, (1995)

• Josiah Burchett, A Complete History of the Most Remarkable Transactions at Sea [1720] Delmar, N.Y.: Published for the John Carter Brown Library by Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, (1995)

• Joseph Conrad, The Rover (1923)’’ ( 1999)

• Christopher Lloyd, Lord Cochrane: seaman, radical, liberator: a life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald (1947). (1998)

• EDITED COLLECTIONS

• Maritime strategy and the balance of power: Britain and America in the twentieth century edited by John B. Hattendorf and Robert S. Jordan; foreword by Robert J. O'Neill (1989)

• Limitations of military power: essays presented to Professor Norman Gibbs on his eightieth birthday edited by John B. Hattendorf and Malcolm H. Murfett ; foreword by Andrew Goodpaster, Piers Mackesy and Sir Michael Pike (1990)

• The influence of history on Mahan: the proceedings of a conference marking the centenary of Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of sea power upon history, 1660-1783 edited by John B. Hattendorf (1991)

• Mahan is not enough: the proceedings of a conference on the works of Sir Julian Corbett and Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond edited by James Goldrick and John B. Hattendorf (1993)

• Ubi sumus? : the state of naval and maritime history edited by John B. Hattendorf (1994)

• Doing naval history: essays toward improvement edited by John B. Hattendorf (1995)

• Maritime history: The Age of Discovery and ‘’The Eighteenth Century and the Classic Age of Sail,’’ edited by John B. Hattendorf (1996—97)

• Naval policy and strategy in the Mediterranean: past, present and future edited by John B. Hattendorf (2000)

• War at sea in the Middle Ages and Renaissance edited by John B. Hattendorf and Richard W. Unger (2003)

• The Cold War at sea: an international appraisal guest editors Lyle J. Goldstein, John B. Hattendorf and Yuri M. Zhukov. Journal of Strategic Studies, (April 2005)

• Nineteen-Gun Salute: Case Studies of Operational, Strategic, and Diplomatic Naval Leadership during the 20th and Early 21st Centuries, edited by John B. Hattendorf and Bruce A. Elleman. (2010)

• PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SEAPOWER SYMPOSIUM

• Eleventh International Seapower Symposium: report of proceedings of the conference, 6—9 October 1991,’’ edited by John B. Hattendorf (1992)

• Twelfth International Seapower Symposium: report of proceedings of the conference, 7—10 November 1993 edited by John B. Hattendorf (1994)

• Thirteenth International Seapower Symposium: report of proceedings of the conference, 5—8 November 1995 edited by John B. Hattendorf (1995)

• Fourteenth International Seapower Symposium: report of the proceedings of the conference, 2—5 November 1997 edited by John B. Hattendorf (1998)

• Sixteenth International Seapower Symposium: report of the proceedings 26—29 October 2003 / edited by John B. Hattendorf (2004)
• Seventeenth International Seapower Symposium: report of the proceedings 20-23 September 2005 (2006)

• GUIDES AND REGISTERS FOR MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS AT THE NAVAL WAR COLLEGE

• Register of the papers of William L. Mullin compiled by John B. Hattendorf (1981) [3]

• Register of the papers of Alfred T. Mahan (1986) [4]

• Register of the papers of William McCarty Little compiled by John B. Hattendorf (1989) [5]

• Register of the papers of Harrij Fredrich Louis Heinrich Schlie (1878—1916) and Gunther Wilhelm August Schlie (1906—1995)

• Register of the Papers of Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Hawkins Whitshed, GCB.

• DICTIONARIES AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS

• A sea of words: a lexicon and companion for Patrick O'Brian's seafaring tales by Dean King, with John B. Hattendorf and J. Worth Estes (1995)

• Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History, John B. Hattendorf, editor-in-chief. Four volumes (2007)

• BIBLIOGRAPHIES

• A bibliography of the works of Alfred Thayer Mahan compiled by John B. Hattendorf and Lynn C. Hattendorf (1987)

• “A bibliography of the works of Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond” and “A bibliography of the works of Sir Julian Corbett” in Goldrick and Hattendorf, eds., Mahan is Not Enough’’, (1993)

• EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

• "The boundless deep..." : the European conquest of the Oceans, 1450 to 1840 : catalogue of an exhibition of rare books, maps, charts, prints and manuscripts relating to maritime history from the John Carter Brown Library (2003)

• Trafalgar and Nelson 200: Catalogue of an exhibition of rare books, maps, charts, prints, models, and signal flags relating to events and influences of the Battle of Trafalgar and Lord Nelson (2005)
• Command of the Sea: Catalogue of an Exhibition of American Naval Art from the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, the U.S. Navy Art Collection, and the U.S. Naval War College Museum displayed at the Newport Art Museum, Newport, Rhode Island, 6 June — 12 August 2007 (2008)
• Faces of the Naval War College (2009)

• PICTORIAL HISTORIES

• A Dusty Path: A pictorial History of Kenyon College (1964)