The Journal
A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early U.S. Republic
If one were to judge Michael Verney’s A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early U.S. Republic by its cover, it might be misconstrued as merely being a work of oceanographic or naval history. Although it unavoidably contains elements of the latter, it is more precisely a social history of antebellum America. Specifically, it is a study that uses naval exploration as a lens through which to examine the proclivities … CONTINUE READING ❯
Review by Chuck Steele
Japanese Carriers and Victory in the Pacific: The Yamamoto Option
Japanese Carriers and Victory in the Pacific: The Yamamoto Option by Martin Stansfeld is certainly an attractively packaged volume. The cover of this Pen and Sword Maritime publication is dominated by a photo of Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) Combined Fleet Commander-in-Chief Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku resplendent in a full-dress uniform. Behind Yamamoto, the rays of the Hinomaru (Rising Sun) naval ensign cast their light over a couple of aircraft carriers at sea, while at the bottom … CONTINUE READING ❯
Review by John M. Jennings
The Neptune Factor: Alfred Thayer Mahan and the Concept of $ea Power
Just when it starts to seem that after more than a hundred years there is nothing new to say about Alfred Thayer Mahan’s writings, along comes The Neptune Factor: Alfred Thayer Mahan and the Concept of $ea Power by Nicholas A. Lambert. In this newly published and detailed biography, Lambert provides a wholistic view that greatly expands the canon. Lambert has already established a reputation for detailed and thoroughly researched military history. Some of his … CONTINUE READING ❯
Review by R. James Orr
Supremacy at Sea: Task Force 58 and the Central Pacific Victory
Evan Mawdsley is a renowned British military historian who has written books on Russian history and the Second World War. In 2019 he published an award-winning maritime history of World War II, The War for the Seas, which highlighted the role of sea lanes and their use in determining the outcome of the war. In Supremacy at Sea, Mawdsley traces the operations of the principal U.S. Navy carrier force in the Pacific in the first … CONTINUE READING ❯
Review by Corbin Williamson
Sea Power and the American Interest: From the Civil War to the Great War.
For the United States, the 50-plus years separating the Civil War and the First World War proved a time of great transformation and turmoil. To be sure, not as great as the Civil War itself, but immigration, westward expansion, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, populism, and progressivism witnessed change on a vast scale in America’s fortunes. Occupying center stage in this period was the role of finance, industrialization, corporate trusts, and the interlocking directorships seemingly controlling … CONTINUE READING ❯
Review by Joseph Moretz, PhD, FRHistS
Two Navies Divided: The British and United States Navies in the Second World War
The Second World War was of epic proportions, and for the Western Allies, the triumph won was purchased on the strength of sea power. The contribution of navies stood first and foremost, in part, because their efforts allowed Allied armies and air forces to meet the Axis on terms of Allies’ choosing. At the forefront of this naval effort were the Royal Navy (RN) and the U.S. Navy (USN), supported by a host of other … CONTINUE READING ❯
Review by Joseph Moretz, PhD, FRHistS
Valor and Courage: The Story of the USS Block Island Escort Carriers in World War II
“For the 957 sailors on board, the two German torpedoes with 660 pounds of explosives slamming Block Island caught them in a range of activities including showering, cooking meals, and doing laundry…..immediately heading for the bridge (Captain) Hughes witnessed visible damage, ‘en route I noticed the port side of the flight deck curled back about ten feet and forward part of the flight deck covered with oily water…’ a group of sailors soon gathered on … CONTINUE READING ❯
Review by Lt Col Nicholas Smith
Small Boats and Daring Men Maritime Raiding, Irregular Warfare, and the Early American Navy
Benjamin Armstrong’s Small Boats and Daring Men provides a fascinating account of an often-overlooked aspect of naval history. Armstrong, a Navy Commander and Associate Professor at the US Naval Academy, has already written extensively on naval history and that clearly helped lead to this refined book on naval irregular warfare. With eight compelling and well-researched episodes of irregular war in the Age of Sail, this book should be of interest to a range of readers. … CONTINUE READING ❯
Review by Dr. Justin Simundson, PhD
Mahan, Corbett, and the Foundations of Naval Strategic Thought
Those writing on naval affairs will ever be indebted to Alfred Thayer Mahan and Julian Corbett, if not the first to put pen to paper and write about navies, then they remain of the first rank of those still cited owing to their breadth of treatment, originality of thought, and continuing influence. More than historians, though assuredly they remained that within the limits of Clio’s art in their time, both proved to be theorists of … CONTINUE READING ❯
Review by Dr. Joseph Moretz, Ph D, FRHistS
Lethal Tides: Mary Sears and the Marine Scientists Who Helped Win World War II
On Mary Sears’ eightieth birthday one of the grandfathers of American oceanography, Scripps’ director Roger Revelle, described her as a “force of nature.” In my own research as an historian of American oceanography I once discovered a letter written by the Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Columbus Iselin, that referred to her using the male personal pronoun, “he.” He never intended an insult. It accidentally betrayed his complete comfort with her as … CONTINUE READING ❯
Review by Dr. Gary Weir, PhD