He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of more than fifty books, mainly on British and American maritime history and naval warfare.

King Professor of Maritime History at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.

He has called maritime history "a subject that touches on both the greatest moments of the human spirit as well as on the worst, including war.

"[4] In 2011, the Naval War College announced the establishment of the Hattendorf Prize for Distinguished Original Research in Maritime History, named for him.

[9] Among the few Americans to have earned this academic degree at Oxford, Hattendorf remained actively engaged on the Naval War College campus after his formal retirement in 2016.

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, where he was inspired by Charles Ritcheson and Richard G.

[4] 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.

In 1979, he completed his doctorate at Pembroke College, Oxford with a thesis on English Grand Strategy in the War of the Spanish Succession, 1702–12, supervised by N. H. Gibbs and complemented by studies under Ragnhild Hatton, Sir Michael Howard and Piers Mackesy.

He served on board USS O'Brien (DD-725), earning a commendation from the Commander, United States Seventh Fleet, for outstanding performance of duty during combat operations in April 1967.

[14] 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, a senior associate member of St Antony's College, Oxford, and a visiting Fellow at Pembroke College, Oxford.

[18] He sat on the executive committee of the University of Haifa’s Maritime Policy & Strategy Research Center (HMS), 2016–2020.

[9] In September 2016, The Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral John Richardson presented him with the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award.

[28] In August 2024, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, a former student of Hattendorf’s, unveiled his official portrait by artist Gerald P. York at the Naval War College.

At the unveiling ceremony, Del Toro noted that Hattendorf was “a legend here at the War College and a titan in the study of maritime history.”[29] In October 2024, the National Maritime Historical Society presented Hattendorf with its Distinguished Service Award in the Model room of the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan.

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.