By Phil Keith with Tom Clavin, Hanover Square Press [HarperCollins], (2022) Reviewed by John Grady “To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth” is one of the best works aimed at a general audience on the naval aspects of the Civil War. Phil Keith and Tom Clavin have brought back to life one of the most
Reviewed by John Grady The weeks long gruesome land battle by Marines and soldiers to take mountainous Saipan included a doomed but deadly Banzai charge of Japanese soldiers followed by mass civilian suicides rather than surrender to the Americans. Those two events are often what is remembered most in the struggle to control the most
Reviewed by John Grady New York Times bestselling author Josh Young’s Expedition Deep Ocean brings to life a detailed portrait of Victor Vescovo. A very rich Texas equity-fund founder and Navy intelligence reservist educated at MIT, Harvard, and Stanford, Vescovo flew fixed-wing and rotary aircraft and climbed the world’s seven highest mountains, but his latest
Reviewed by John Grady. If it’s a clear day and you stand on Fort Monroe’s ramparts, you can see the edge of the “carrier piers” at the Norfolk Naval Station. There, a few miles away across Hampton Roads, are usually two of the nation’s largest warships — either ready for deployment or just returned. If
Christopher McKee’s latest work is a beautifully drawn elegy of the sailors and Marines who were admitted to the “refuge on the Schuylkill” in the 19th century. When first opened it was in bucolic setting removed from Philadelphia, with all the best intentions for men who had given years to honorable naval service. But as
So why is the Naval Historical Foundation reviewing a major political figure’s autobiography, first published in 2015, now available in paperback, but with no direct connection to the sea services? For this reviewer, it comes down to Doug Wilder’s descriptions of personal character as honed especially by his mother and leadership forged on Old Baldy
Gunboats on the Great Lakes 1866-68, The British Navy’s show of force at the time of Confederation By Cheryl MacDonald, James Lorimer and Company, Toronto, (2017). Reviewed by John Grady Gunboats of the Great Lakes is a “what if” book; and the “if” is directly connected to the untimely death of the author, Cheryl
Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules of Law By Jeremy Rabkin, John Yoo,: Encounter Books, New York, NY. (2017). Reviewed by John Grady Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules of Law is a thought-provoking and disturbing book. It fits well into the manner
By Seth Cropsey, Encounter Books, New York, NY (2017) Reviewed by John Grady Seth Cropsey’s latest book is an excellent primer on the state of today’s weakened American naval forces and some ways that he thinks can right them now and strengthen them in the longer run to meet the future changing challenges from Moscow,
By David Cannadine, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK (2017) Reviewed by John Grady This to-the-point, short biography of Margaret Thatcher, the United Kingdom’s longest-serving prime minister, provides some interesting political parallels to today’s United States — the rise of populism to give voice to those left behind, cries to scale back government, demands to unleash
By Ian W. Toll, W.W. Norton, New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by John Grady Ian Toll’s Conquering Tide is the middle piece of his Pacific War history, and it is a superb fit with the first volume, Pacific Crucible. Now available in paperback, Conquering Tide tells the story of the fight after the Battle of
Reviewed by John Grady David Porter remains one of the most fascinating personalities in the early American Navy. His quickly written, often self-serving but surprisingly candid Journal about his wartime activities in the Pacific set a standard for naval writing that remains informative and clear. It was also highly popular at the time, fanned by
By Mark K. Ragan, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, TX (2015) Reviewed by John Grady Mark Ragan’s Confederate Saboteurs does a wonderful job of shining new light on the extraordinary steps that the government in Richmond, and more importantly the inventive men from all over the seceded states, were willing to take to win
By Andrew A. Jampoler, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2015) Reviewed by John Grady Having spent a great deal of time reading accounts and logbooks from the voyages of Thomas ap Catesby Jones, John “Mad Jack” Percival, John Downes, William Bolton Finch, Charles Wilkes, et al., of American encounters in the Pacific, in Asia, in
By John Grady, McFarland, Jefferson, NC (2015) Reviewed by Ingo Heidbrink, Ph.D. While Matthew Fontaine Maury is without a doubt well known among historians of science and in particular historians of oceanography, the general public might not know his name. Many naval historians will not have a real idea about the man who is often
