U-Boats Off Bermuda: Patrol Summaries and Merchant Ship Survivors Landed in Bermuda 1940-1944 By Eric Wiberg, Fonthill Media, Charleston, SC: (2017). Reviewed by Timothy Heck Eric Wiberg’s U-Boats Off Bermuda recounts a story of the western side of the War in the Atlantic. With much of the scholarship focused on the combatants, and
Crucible of a Generation: How the Attack on Pearl Harbor Transformed America. By J. Kenneth Brody, Routledge, New York, (2017). Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D., Independent Scholar “All I know is what I read in the papers.” Will Rogers (Brody 2017:vi). This is an often mentioned quote (with variations) cited by author
Incidents at Sea: American Confrontations and Cooperation with Russia and China 1945-2016 by David F. Winkler, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2017). Reviewed by Charles Bogart The Cold War was exceptionally “cold” on land, as there were very few confrontations between Soviet and American ground forces along the land border between NATO and
In the Shadow of Greatness: The Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service from America’s Longest War By Joshua Welle, John Ennis, Katherine Kranz, and Graham Plaster, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD. (2012). Reviewed by Capt. Lee Duckworth, USN (Ret.) In the Shadow of Greatness: Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service from America’s Longest
The Strategy of Victory: How George Washington Won the American Revolution By Thomas Fleming. Da Capo Press, New York. (2017). Reviewed by David Curtis Skaggs, PhD Few topics in American history have received more attention than the War for Independence and George Washington’s role in it. Into this crowded field Thomas Fleming (1927-2017) brings
Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail By Suzanne J. Stark, Naval Institute Press Annapolis, Md. (2017). Reviewed by Joseph-James Ahern Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail is a reprint of the late Suzanne Stark’s 1996 study of women who went to sea aboard Royal Navy warships
Neglected Skies: The Demise of British Naval Power in the Far East, 1922-42 Angus Britts. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2017). Reviewed by Joseph Moretz, Ph D Of the many years of fiscal stringency preceding the Second World War, Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond observed that a ‘two-ocean empire cannot be defended by a one-ocean
By Noell Wilson, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA (2015) Review by John M. Jennings, PhD Conventional wisdom among historians had long held that throughout most of the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868), Japan pursued a policy of self-imposed isolation from the outside world. Japanese historians even coined a term, sakoku, or “closed country,” to describe this paradigm.
By Ellen Gill, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, VA (2016) Reviewed by Joseph Moretz, PhD They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters may have been men in King George’s Navy, but they were not all bachelors. Those left behind—often for years at a time—did more than keep the
By James Carl Nelson, Caliber, New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by Captain Kevin M. Boyce, USMC The annals of American military history reveal a breadth of scholarly writings, encompassing the stories of countless heroes of war and the battles in which they fought. These legends are often remembered for acts of heroism that imbue the
Helen Watt and Anne Hawkins, eds., Boydell Press, Woodbridge, VA (2014) Reviewed by Lisa Vandenbossche Recent trends in contemporary criticism to recapture and understand the experiences of those from below have left scholars searching for artifacts and narratives from outside the upper ranks of society and leadership. In Letters of Seamen in the Wars with
By Craig L. Symonds, Oxford University Press, New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by Jason W. Smith, PhD It is often a pleasure to read short books, and Craig Symonds’ The U.S. Navy: A Concise History does not disappoint. Symonds, professor emeritus at the United States Naval Academy, is an eminent scholar of naval history whose
By Joseph Moretz, Helion & Company, West Midlands, UK (2014) Reviewed by CDR Benjamin Armstrong, PhD The years following the Great War have become something of a favorite of modern day military analysts in search of historical analogy. The development of innovative doctrine, the introduction and assimilation of new technologies, and struggles with fluctuating fiscal
By Randall Peffer, Dutton Caliber, New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by Nicolas Russell Where Divers Dare is an fascinating read for those interested in either World War II’s Battle of the Atlantic or deep-sea diving. The book creates a duality, starting with the events leading to the sinking of U-550 and transitioning to the eventual
By Robert Hornick, University of Massachusetts Press Boston, MA (2017). Reviewed by William H. White There have been a plethora of volumes written about American Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones; Hornick’s effort is not a biography of the man nor is it a recounting of his brilliance in battle. What Remains is an exquisitely
