By Reed Robert Bonadonna, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2017) Reviewed by John R. Satterfield, DBA No one disputes that the growth and development of warfare have been functions of the advance of civilization, but the contributions of war to human progress may be less obvious. Many argue that violent conflict reflects little more than
By Bruce A. Castleman, State University Press, Albany, NY (2016) Reviewed by Charles Bogart The reviewer doubts that today even one in a million Americans could identify Commodore John David Sloat; however, there was a time when he was well-known across the country. Depending on one’s political views, Commodore Sloat was praised or damned. This
By Giora Romm, Black Irish Entertainment LLC, New York, NY (2014) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky USNR (Ret.) Most combat veterans of any country have one great fear, something that sometimes occurs, no matter how they prepare to defend against it: namely, capture by the enemy and imprisonment for an extended duration. In the mid-to-late
By Rick Morgan, Osprey Publishing, Ltd. Oxford, UK (2017) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) A sequel to the author’s earlier Combat Aircraft No. 93 covering the Intruder’s Vietnam service, this new book describes the A-6’s new, often little-known history after Southeast Asia with insider knowledge and style. His introduction is one of the
Rick Morgan Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK (2012) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) Grumman’s big, ugly carrier-based bomber has generated only a few books, including one done by this author and his brother Mark for Schiffer in 2004, a good book in a much larger format. A couple of wartime memoirs have also appeared
By Rob Langham, Fonthill Media Limited and Casemate Publishers, Havertown, PA (2016) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) Senior British military author Owen Thetford wrote in his 1958 book British Naval Aircraft 1912-58 (Putnam, UK): It is not always appreciated that the Admiralty was the first of the British Service Departments to recognize the
By Rick Campbell, St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY (2017) Reviewed by William H. White Having read and reviewed one or two of his previous tales, Cdr. Rick Campbell’s latest, BLACKMAIL is in my opinion, his best by a long shot. And unfortunately, it is, in large part, the most credible. While Campbell’s background is
By Mark Lardas. Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC (2016) Reviewed by Ed Calouro Author Mark Lardas has written a short, succinct, and largely successful illustrated history of the second generation dreadnought battleship Texas. Though not on par with Paul Stillwell’s longer and more detailed biographies of New Jersey, Arizona, and Missouri, this book nevertheless serves as
By Benjamin J. Hruska. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD (2016) Reviewed by Heather M. Haley Over the past three decades, debates over the professionalization of public historians have raged between academic historians and those who involve themselves in archival management, museum curation, and the digital humanities. Benjamin Hruska, former director of the Block Island Historical
By Richard S. MacAlpine, Infinity Press (2016) Reviewed by Charles H. Bogart This amazing book allows the reader to enter the heart and soul of Frank H. Schofield who entered the Naval Academy in 1886 and retired in 1933 as Commander of the U.S. Navy’s Battle Fleet. Admiral Schofield saw service during the Spanish-American War
By Ronald S. Coddington, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD (2016) Review by Thomas P. Ostrom Ronald S. Coddington has chronicled the lives of dozens of Confederate and Union sailors in the War of the Rebellion (1861-1865) in his magnificent photographic and narrative history. In the Foreword, Professor Craig L. Symonds traced the general backgrounds
By Waldo Heinrichs and Marc Gallicchio, Oxford University Press, New York, NY (2017) Reviewed by Capt. Howard R. Portnoy, USN (Ret.) With the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II approaching, it seems an appropriate time to reexamine our perceptions of the war to determine if revisions are necessary. It appears reasonable to
By Rod Andrew Jr., Marine Corps University, History Division, Quantico, VA (2015) Reviewed by Timothy Heck Colonel Rod Andrew’s The First Fight is part of a larger official commemorative effort dedicated to the Marine Corps’ involvement in Southeast Asia from the early 1960s until 1975. This pamphlet history by Marine Corps University is a concise
Thomas J. Cutler, Series Ed., Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2016) Reviewed by: Robert P. Largess The U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings has been a pillar of intelligent discourse on naval science, events, technology and history since its first issue in 1874. Always imaginative, open, thoughtful, Proceedings is a goldmine of high-quality material for the naval
By Douglas Carl Peifer, Oxford University Press, New York, (2016) By Kenneth J. Hagan, Ph.D This remarkable book by a professor at the Air University was motivated by his concerns about how policymakers and strategists cope with the multifaceted aspects of contemporary naval incidents. He is convinced that the study of history is far more
